Iron Guardian
by KingofthePhantomDragon
Summary: This is a story me and a friend of mine at school have been planning. NaruxHinaxharem. Not Super-Naruto or God-Naruto, just Slightly-Stronger-than-genin Naruto.
1. Chapter 1

Hi, everyone! I had this idea floating around my head for a while now and I just wanted to put it out there.

Here it is, The Vengeance of Iron

Chapter 1. The Hidden Leaf's Iron Demon

Naruto snickered to himself as he grabbed the forbidden scroll, he had no idea it would be this easy, he failed to realize that no other genin could have pulled this off, as he had far more stealth than was average. After all, running and hiding from villagers who want to kill you will do that, then running and hiding from shinobi and kunoichi who want to catch you for some prank you pulled will also increase your natural stealth and speed. It also helped to have a traitorous chunin place several genjutsu on the guards. He was about to wrap the scroll on his back when the door began to open behind him, he naturally panicked. He quickly grabbed the scroll and bolted for the window. He didn't have to worry about the Hokage, sexy jutsu had taken care of him. He leapt out the window and was on his way.

Naruto sat down the forbidden scroll in his lap, he smiled as he let it unroll the whole way down, he failed to notice the glass vial that slipped out of the bottom of the scroll and ended up at the base of a nearby tree.

"Let's see here, the first jutsu: Multi-shadow-clone Jutsu...aw man that's my worst jutsu," Naruto complained to nobody.

After two hours, Naruto sat on a tree trunk, panting in exhaustion. Iruka Umino showed up a few minutes later.

"NARUTO WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" He screamed. Naruto gave him his foxy grin.

"Haha, Hi Iruka-sensei! I guess I found you"

"Yeah…wait! what the hell!? I found you, idiot," Naruto kept smiling

"Oh, I guess you did, anyway I guess I can be a genin now, huh?," Iruka frowned, something wasn't right here.

"What are you talking about Naruto?"

"Mizuki-sensei told me if I got the forbidden scroll and learned one technique I would be able to become a genin."

Iruka's eyes widened and he barely sensed something behind him, he dived forward tackling Naruto to the ground as an over sized shuriken slashed through the space he had just occupied. "Ah Iruka why did you save the demon brat huh? Oh well, I'll just kill you both and take the scroll"

"What? You're the traitor! Why did you bring Naruto into this?"

"Felt like it" Mizuki grinned as he produced yet another over large shuriken and threw it at Naruto.

Naruto kept his eyes open, _'it won't end like this it can't end like this I'm gonna be Hokage'_ he cried out in defiance as the weapon approached, suddenly something blurred in front of his vision, he heard a grunt and a warm sticky substance splattered onto his forehead and left cheek. He looked up and was utterly shocked to see Iruka's smiling face looking down at him.

"Run Naruto, run now please." He whispered. Naruto shook his head, as he stood and quickly moved around Iruka, noticing the shuriken in his father figure's back. He growled and looked at Mizuki.

"You hurt Iruka-sensei again, and I'll kill you!" The traitor just laughed, Naruto yelled a battle cry and he charged, as he neared Mizuki just backhanded him hard. He slammed back first into a tree, he dropped to the ground and thought he heard glass break; he ignored it and the small pain in his right shoulder.

"I can't help but ask, Naruto, Have you ever wondered why the villagers hate your worthless guts?" Mizuki sneered. Naruto's eyes widened as did Iruka's.

"Shut up, Mizuki! You know that it's forbidden to tell him." Iruka screamed. Mizuki smirked and Naruto gasped.

"Of course, I forgot about the decree that the Third set forth, twelve years ago," He stated sarcastically.

"What is this...decree?" Naruto shakily asked. Mizuki laughed.

"Are you sure you really want to know? Twelve years ago, the fourth hokage was said to have used a forbidden jutsu that destroyed the nine-tailed fox. But that's only half the truth, the fox was a force of nature, an embodiment of pure chakra. Something like that can't be destroyed, only sealed." He said, ignoring Iruka's screams to stop.

"Do you understand Naruto? The decree was that no one was to tell you that the Nine-tailed fox is inside you." He said with a maddening look in his eyes.

Naruto's eyes widened in shock and realization.

"That's right, the very demon that attacked our village a dozen years ago. The very same monster that murdered Iruka's parents is inside of you. You ARE the Nine-tailed Fox."

"NO! NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!" Naruto screamed in anguish. Raging blue chakra began to pulse and swirl around him. He suddenly remembered the technique he had learned. He made a single seal and gathered his chakra, both Mizuki and Iruka looked in his direction as he called out a technique, Iruka looked on with awe, Mizuki would have shit himself but he was too scared even for that. Lets just say the results where unpleasant.

Iruka smiled, he called Naruto over to him "Okay, close your eyes" He chuckled at Naruto's shocked expression when he realized that the forehead protector he was now wearing was Iruka's, Iruka laughed out loud as Naruto tackled him in a hug. The kid was really something; neither noticed the last tendrils of a silver substance that was absorbed into an exposed wound on his back.

Naruto stumbled into his apartment, he must have been more tired than he thought, after talking with the Hokage, going over everything, his excitement at becoming a genin had made him forget hearing glass break in the forest. He groaned as his stomach rolled over, only then did he realize how much he was sweating, he began to strip, preparing for bed. He was down to his boxers when he cried out in pain and grasped his right arm, which had felt cold to the touch, and fell to the floor, curling up, shivering, and sweating profusely. Soon unconsciousness claimed him, while the arm that he was grasping was slowly changing.

(Next Morning)

Naruto awoke with a serious ache in his head and when he went to rub it he was greeted to a very big surprise. "UWAAAAAAAH," Naruto's entire right arm, his shoulder and the right half of his upper body were partially transformed into metal.

And it hurt worse than hell, his headache didn't make anything easier either.

He slowly went to his closet and grabbed some black clothing before heading out.

(At the Academy)

Iruka sighed, Naruto was late again suddenly the door smashed open Iruka tiredly said "Your late Naruto" only then he noticed the shocked expressions on the students faces and some of their fearful gasps, he turned to the door and barely suppressed his own, Naruto was not wearing that orange jumpsuit that screamed 'I'm over here, come kill me' he was dressed all in black. Iruka looked over what he was wearing, it was a black trenchcoat that was worn over a black hoodie, black jean pants with an assortment of pockets, black ninja sandals with platings over the toes, and finally a black fingerless glove on his left hand. He walked into the room while using the wall to support himself.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei, can I get an aspirin or something? I feel like my head is coming apart," He moaned and rubbed his head with his right hand before collapsing.

Iruka immediately noticed Naruto's hand was partially metal and called to the chunin out in the hall. "Go to the hokage and tell him that Naruto is injured, I'll take him on ahead to the hospital to be examined." He ordered. The chunin nodded and vanished.

Iruka quickly grabbed Naruto before facing the class,"Sit tight and wait for me to return." He said before vanishing.

A certain pale-eyed girl began praying for her crush's health.

(Konoha Hospital)

"I don't know any other way to describe it. It's a biological phenomena that's made his organic tissue transmute into a metallic alloy. I can tell you that the metal itself has the same molecular density as iron." The med-nin explained to Iruka and the Hokage.

"I believe that I know what it really is. Can we see him?" The third asked.

The med-nin nodded and motioned for them to follow him. "We have him on vicodin to handle his headache and he may be a little slurry but bear with it," He opened a door to reveal a nurse with a scalpel in her hand, standing over Naruto's sleeping form.

"This is for my husband!" She declared and brought the scalpel down over Naruto's head.

Naruto's eyes snapped open and he brought his right hand up to stop the mini-knife.

Then it happened.

He flexed his hand in front of his face and it was covered in a transparent-green mist before turning silver along with a part of his forearm. The mist must have also acted as a mini-shockwave because the nurse was pushed back by it.

Suddenly, Naruto's hand was covered by the mist again and a three-bladed disc burst from his palm.

Out of instinct, he grasped it and slit the nurses throat before everyones eyes.

He turned toward the third with a look of pure terror on his face before looking back at the disc in his hand. He threw the disc out the window with a scream of fear. After a few moments, Naruto raised his hand to catch the weapon that flew back into his grip.

"Naruto, you need to calm down," The third calmly stated while slowly moving closer to Naruto's shaking form.

"Get someone to take this body out of here." Iruka ordered the doctor who nodded. He knew that the law for attempted assasination of Naruto Uzumaki resulted in death.

"Old man, Iruka-sensei, What's happening to me?" Naruto asked, still recovering from comitting his first kill. He willed the disc to be absorbed into his hand.

"The forbidden scroll wasn't just for containing forbidden jutsu, Naruto. It was apparently used to contain an old experimental biological weapon called "Technocyte." It was created by my advisor Danzo when he ran the ANBU ROOT division, He was ordered to cease all activity relating to it and destroy any and all data that he had on it, but he must have placed a liquid sample into a vial and stored it in the forbidden scroll." Hiruzen explained to the calming teen.

"What did this thing do?" Iruka asked.

"It changes a persons skin into a metallic alloy depending to the metal it first makes contact with, like a steel kunai would be dipped in the liquid technocyte and stabbed into a subjects arm or hand and cause a persons skin to turn into steel. In Naruto's case, the first metal it touched was the iron in his bloodstream. The catch for the power of the technocyte was that the transformation was so painful that it would drive the specimen mad, causing a complete mental breakdown. Naruto was saved from madness by the nine-tailed fox, I suppose. We also discovered that it can literally grow metallic items, like blades, wires, etc. The things that it grows are incredibly conductible. By that I mean that if you electrify it, it could generate electricity for a short while. The same with fire, you could burn it or freeze it if it touched ice." The Third finished.

"Great. Not only do I have the fox demon in me, now I have some kind of biological virus manifesting as my right arm. Is it treatable?"

The third shook his head. Naruto clenched his metal fist in aggravation.

"What about infection? Could I infect others" He asked.

"Only if your blood enters another person's body. But this could be a good thing, Come to my office in the morning after your test and I'll explain. Oh, and this isn't classified. You can tell all that you deem fit if you wish." The third said before excusing himself.

"I think I can go back to the Academy, Iruka-sensei." Naruto said before sluggishly getting out of the bed.

"Are you sure, Naruto? The past few days have been trying for you," Iruka said as he made sure Naruto would be stable on his feet.

"I've been prescribed Vicodin, I have to take one or two every few hours or so to insure my headache doesn't get too bad. I guess the fox can only do so much." Naruto said as he opened the door and walked out with Iruka following him. Iruka grabbed Naruto's coat from the rack once he realized that Naruto's hoodie was missing its right sleeve and revealed his entire infection.

(Back at the Academy)

"I'm sorry to keep you all waiting," Iruka said as he walked into the room with Naruto coming in behind him, wearing his trenchcoat.

Naruto walked up to sit next to Hinata and put his head down on the desk, Hinata nearly fainted in relief at the thought of her crush being alright and sitting next to her.

Others didn't take it so well.

"_Who the hell does he think he is? Sitting next to MY Hinata_." Kiba Inuzuka thought and growled quietly to himself.

"Why aren't you sitting in your usual seat, Naruto?" Choji Akamichi asked worriedly.

"Hinata's quieter than most and my head can't take much noise right now." He mumbled loudly enough to be heard.

"How pathetic!" Sasuke Uchiha said. Naruto lifted his left arm and flipped him off.

"If you went throgh the ordeal that I just experienced, you'd literally lose what little sanity your arrogant ass has left." He mumbled loudly.

"Hey, You can't talk to my Sasuke like that," Sakura shouted and approached Naruto menacingly.

Naruto raised his right hand and to his, and everyone else's surprise, a metallic web-like substance shot from his hand and slapped onto her mouth.

Naruto raised his head, "Please don't yell." He said before putting his head back down.

"That's enough, Sakura. Sit down," Iruka ordered. Naruto smirked as Sakura gave up trying to pull the webbing off of her face and sat down glaring at him while breathing through her nose. "Now I'm going to announce the teams, Team 1..." Naruto didn't pay attention until his name was called. "Team 7: Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno." There was a heavily muffled squeal at this, then everyone was shocked when a slightly muffled "Dammit" came from Naruto. "Team 8: Kiba Inuzuka and Akamaru, Shino Aburame, and Hinata Hyuga." Kiba whooped while Shino gave no outward reaction, and Hinata frowned at not being with Naruto. Team 10: Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi, and Ino Yamanaka." Shikamaru grumbled "Troublesome," Choji continued to eat his chips while Ino shouted about not being with Sasuke until Naruto shot another metallic webbing onto her mouth.

"I nicely asked you all to not yell," He said.

"Congratulations, everyone you've made me very proud. Your jonin sensei's will be here soon to pick you all up." Iruka said before walking out of the room.

The jounins came and gathered their teams till all that where left was team 7. Naruto willed the webbing on Ino's mouth back into his arm before she left.

Sakura, once again, tried to clobber Naruto, but he jumped up to the ceiling and hung onto the support beam.

"What part of "I have a headache" do you not understand?" He irritatingly asked before jumping down.

Sasuke watched Naruto sit down in the front row and pull out a white pill from his pouch and a bottle of water. He dropped the pill in his mouth and washed it down with a few gulps of water.

"What was that?" He asked.

Naruto looked at him, slightly better looking than before.

"Vicodin." He said simply.

Sasuke and Sakura's eyes widened. What could have happened to make doctors prescribe him Vicodin.

(Two hours later)

Naruto woke up from his nap as he sensed someone approaching, he muttered "He's here" To himself, Earning a confused then shocked look from Sasuke as their new sensei opened the door and entered. "Hello…uhh, What is that on her mouth" Naruto simply yawned and stood up.

"Well, meet me on the roof in five," He said before vanishing in a puff of smoke. The genin walked out the door.

Kakashi was beginning his personal preparation for talking to the genins what he'd tell them and what he wouldn't, when he heard footsteps approaching him.

"Okay introduce yourselves" where the first words that their new sensei spoke when they sat down on the steps.

"Uhh sensei? Why don't you go first? So we know what to do." Naruto suggested. He held his right hand up and summoned the webbing on Sakura's face to his palm, elicting a yelp of pain from her.

"Okay my name is Kakashi Hatake I have dislikes and likes, I have many hobbies and I have a dream"

The students all had the same thought, _"we only learned his name." _

"Okay I'm done, you go pinky,"

Sakura was irritated at the nickname her introduction was punctuated with many giggles and glances at Sasuke and a very loud "I HATE NARUTO!" which earned a chuckle from said blonde.

Sasuke introduced himself in his usual cold and ruthless tone of voice, "My name is Sasuke Uchiha, I have no likes, I have too many dislikes to say, My dream, no, my ambition is to kill a certain man and revive my clan to its true glory," He finished.

"My name is Naruto Uzamaki, I like my friends, ramen, and animals, I hate the three minutes it takes to cook ramen, and every person that's ever hurt me, my hobbies are learning Jutsus, training, eating ramen, and playing with animals, my dreams are to master my new ability and become Hokage."

The ones listening to this where shocked for two different reasons…firstly, it was delivered in a calm precise voice, not jumping up and down and yelling. Secondly because his ambition was rather far fetched.

"Uhh good now I want you to meet me at 7:00 A.M. tomorrow morning at training ground seven to pass the real genin test."

"REAL GENIN TEST…we already are genin" yelled Sakura.

"No that test was just to cut out the wannabes, this test is the real one. Out of all who passed, only nine get to be genin, the rest go back to the academy. Okay, see you then, Oh, and don't eat breakfast or you'll just throw up." He poofed away, leaving three stunned genin hopefuls, Naruto was the first to recover. He stood to leave but was confronted by Sakura.

"I got some questions, what the hell did you cover my mouth with, why did you do it and why are you trying to dress cool? Are you trying to look better than Sasuke because no one can do that?"

"Uhh, the stuff was metallic webbing." He said before walking away, leaving Sakura to try and ask Sasuke out.

(In training area 44)

Naruto swallowed another Vicodin before walking into the dark forest. Once he was about a mile in he brought his left hand fingers to his mouth and whistled.

After a few minutes, two animals appeared.

One was a slender Red fox named Mugen, that he had saved from a drunken man a few years ago. The fox was examined by Tsume Inuzuka, Kiba's mother, she had discovered that the fox had incredible chakra reserves just like their ninja hounds. The other was a Shiruba-hane taka(I don't speak japanese, so, did get that right?), or a silver-winged hawk he had named Jin. An extremely rare bird that was nearly extinct. He had found the egg when he was eight and nurtured it to adulthood. Now, it was fully grown into a glorious sight in the sky.

Mugen used his claws to climb up his clothes until he had nestled himself into Naruto's hood. Jin swooped around his head and nestled onto his left shoulder.

"I've got a lot to tell you two." He said before beginning his tale, unaware that he was followed.

Kakashi watched and listened from a tree branch as Naruto told his story to the two little animals. The third had told him about Naruto's condition and he wanted to see just what it was capable of.

(One hour later)

"That's the story, It's getting late so I guess I'll see you two later," Naruto said before placing the two down and turning to leave. He was surprised when they ended up back in their respective perch.

"The two of you finally want to go home with me?" His answer was Mugen licking his cheek and Jin nibbling affectionately on his ear.

"Alright! Let's go home," He sad before walking back to the village.

Kakashi suddenly appeared before him.

"That's an interesting tale," He said casually.

Naruto popped his neck as Jin's feathers furled and Mugen growled. "I was wondering when you'd reveal yourself," He said.

"You knew I was there?" Kakashi asked.

"You may want to take a bath cause you smell like dog," Naruto responded, patting his two little friends to calm them.

"I'm not here to fight you. I just want to see the technocyte."

Naruto motioned for Jin to jump on his head and the hawk did so before Naruto removed his trenchcoat to reveal his semi-metallic limb.

Kakashi observed it for a moment before addressing Naruto. "Are you going to tell your teammates?" He asked.

Naruto shrugged, "I don't know, Sakura's always hated my guts so this ought to increase it a bit. Sasuke's a different story. His hunger for power is insatiable, once he sees what I can do he'll demand that I give him the same thing. Doing so would either drive him literally mad from the pain or kill him. Either option's fine with me but I can't afford to let those civillian council jackasses get any ammo on me, You can tell them if you want," Naruto said as he replaced his trenchcoat.

Kakashi nodded.

"It's your power. You have to be the one to tell them if you want to." He said before waving goodbye and disappearing in a wisp of smoke.

Naruto and his new pets slowly walked to the village.

(The next morning)

Naruto awoke at 6:00 A.M. due to his alarm clock. Once he shut it off, he looked at his arm to see that the entire forearm was a sterling silver color.

"That's interesting, don't you think?" He muttered to Mugen and Jin, who were awakened by the sound of the alarm. He threw the blankets off and put on his clothes from yesterday. He didn't feel like wearing his orange jumpsuit anymore for some reason.

He showered and brushed his teeth in a hurry before swallowing another vicodin. He had asked the Akimichi clan head for a special pouch that wouldn't run out of certain provisions, in his case, Vicodin.

He grabbed a few apples off the kitchen counter and ran out the door with his animals perched on their usual place. He was soon sprinting and leaping over the rooftops.

(Training ground number 7)

Sakura was angry, Sasuke was annoying her and she could have sworn he had mumbled "Where is that dobe?" Which obviously meant Naruto. Why was Sasuke thinking or even seemingly worried about Naruto, and where was he? He was late for some reason.

Sakura heard a rustle to her left. She looked in said direction and gasped, Naruto appeared with a fox in his hood and a hawk on his shoulder, he casually waved and spoke "Howdy guys," Sakura snapped "WHERE THE HELL WHERE YOU?", Naruto winced at the volume, he now knew to not piss off Sakura without a handy supply of Vicodin.

"I felt sick last night for some reason and it kept me up so I slept late this morning sorry," Sakura glared at him and Sasuke merely 'Hmphed."

Naruto sat down.

One hour after Naruto's arrival Kakashi arrived with a simple "Yo!"

"YOU'RE LATE" Sakura screeched while the three males winced at the volume.

"I got lost on the road of life."

Naruto chuckled at the lame excuse while Sakura screeched again "LIAR."

Kakashi gave a creepy 'eye' smile. He pulled out two bells on strings and tied them to his belt. "Your objective is to get these bells one for each of you"

Sakura noticed what was wrong with this immediately "But sensei there are only two bells"

"Correct Sakura that means only two of you can pass, those who get a bell pass the test" explained the Cyclops his single eye showing obvious amusement. Several thoughts where running through the heads of the three potential genin,

"T_hey will only slow me down. I must pass, I will pass."_ Sasuke thought.

"_oh no! if I fail I will be separated from my Sasuke-kun."_ Sakura thought.

Naruto, Jin, and Mugen yawned.

Kakashi nodded, he pulled out an alarm clock and set it "You have three hours to complete the test" with that the three humans and fox leapt away, while the hawk took to the sky.

Kakashi sighed, this was probably another team he would fail the council had suggested that if the team failed he should take Sasuke as an apprentice, he wouldn't do that he refused to, those bastard council members had tried to use Obito's death as a reason why he should teach the Uchiha alone, he had almost caved but he remembered that Obito had prized teamwork above all others, he did however know that once he awoke his Sharingan, team or not, he would have no choice for he was the only one who could teach him. He pulled out the greatest book of all time or at least to him, suddenly he felt a presence a few meters behind him. He turned to see Naruto without his trenchcoat.

"So, You want to challenge me one-on-one?" He asked.

His answer was in the form of Naruto growing the 3-bladed disc he had dubbed the Glaive, out of his hand and grasping it.

Naruto pulled his arm back and hurled the glaive with all his strength.

Kakashi ducked under the bladed disc and watched puncture the rock on the other end of the training grounds.

"Nice power, but not quick enough," Kakashi lectured and turned to face Naruto who was...

smirking?

Naruto held his hand out and the glaive pulled itself free from the stone and managed to knick Kakashi's cheek before Naruto grabbed it.

"How's that for quick?" Naruto asked. He spun the glaive with his pointer finger through the center ring, mockingly.

Kakashi's eye widened at what happened. "_He actually cut me, one of the best jonin of the Hidden Leaf_." He put his copy of Make-out Paradise in his pouch and pulled out a kunai.

Naruto absorbed the glaive and replaced it with a katana. The hilt had a two pronged hand guard and was completely silver(It's Mugen's sword from Samurai Champloo, only it's pure silver).

"I may need to get some lessons on how to use this thing properly but I'll manage for now," Naruto said while twirling the sword like a baton.

They charged at eachother and the dance of blades began.

(With Sasuke)

"This is impossible! How can the class deadlast stand toe-to-toe against a jonin-level ninja?" Sasuke whispered as he watched the sparks fly from the clashing blades.

(With Sakura)

_"Idon't know how he's doing that but_ _my Sasuke could do that with his eyes closed,"_ She thought as she moved through the bushes to find the object of her affections.

(With Naruto and Kakashi)

Naruto blocked another strike from his sensei's kunai with a spear he had switched to when his sword was getting boring.

"Even though I know you're holding back, it feels good to know that I can keep a jonin on his toes." Naruto said once he flipped away to get some distance.

"If I could guess, I would say that your combat skills reach mid-chunin at the highest," Kakashi commented before dodging a stab from Naruto's spear.

Kakashi rolled to the left to come face-to-face with Naruto's fox. "I think that you should get the animals out of here, or else they may get caught in the crossfire." He suggested.

His reply was Naruto twirling the spear and slamming the butt of it on the ground and pointing his left pointer finger at Mugen.

Kakashi looked back at the fox to see it baring its fangs at him as though he were smiling himself.

Before throwing his head shooting a plume of flames out of his mouth.

Kakashi's eye widened before he jumped out of the way. "_Fire style jutsu!?_"

Up in the air, he came face-to-beak with Naruto's hawk. The bird shrieked and flapped its shining wings ferociously. To Kakashi's surprise, the wings blew an intense gust of wind at him."_Wind style justu too!?_"

Kakashi impacted into a tree, only to poof into a log.

"Substitution jutsu." Naruto muttered before running into the trees with his animals following him.

(In the woods)

"_Damn! He's better than I anticipated. And his animals are capable of jutsu,_" Kakashi thought as he caught his breath, leaning against a tree. He felt a slight change in the wind and dodged the kunai and shuriken that would have hit him. They looked like normal weapons so he knew that they belonged to Sasuke or Sakura, most likely, Sasuke. He was proven right when Sasuke sprinted out of the bushes and reached out to take the bells. Kakashi grabbed Sasuke's wrist and flipped him over, then he blocked a kick before jumping out of his range. "You're a little different from the others, aren't you?"

Sasuke gave him an arrogant smirk, "Of course I am. I'm an Uchiha," He exclaimed.

Kakashi smirked underneath his mask. "But, I doubt that you'd be anywhere near as challenging as Naruto and his ninja animals." He said loudly before taking out his book. He heard a snicker from the branches above him, Naruto decided to watch the show, apparently.

Sasuke growled before taking out a kunai and throwing it at a rope in the bushes to his left.

"_A trap?_" Kakashi thought amusedly. He jumped into the clearing to dodge the kunai that stuck themselves in the ground where he stood before. He turned a page in his book.

Sasuke rushed towards Kakashi with a kunai in hand.

(With Naruto)

He smiled to himself when Sasuke used Fire style: Fireball jutsu after realizing that his taijutsu wasn't working and then Kakashi used Earth style: headhunter jutsu to bury Sasuke up to his neck in the earth. Kakashi paused for a moment, searching for him, "_or Sakura,_" Naruto added mentally. He was answered when his sensei sprinted into the woods and moments later, a girl's scream was heard. Naruto's eyes widened and he ran to the point of origin to see Sakura on the ground. He carefully walked over to her to inspect her. "She fainted, must have been genjutsu." He muttered. _"Damn! I don't know how to dispel those things," _He thought and, to his surprise, Sakura began to stir. "Easy! You were caught in a genjutsu," Naruto explained.

Sakura merely glanced at him before jumping to her feet in a hysterical fit. "Sasuke! Where's my Sasuke!?" She would have screamed even more, but Naruto's metallic hand slapped onto her mouth to silence her rant.

"Calm down. Sasuke's in the clearing, buried to his neck in the ground." He explained with a chuckle. Sasuke's angry-looking face sticking out of the ground was a funny image.

Sakura glowered at him until she took notice of his hand. She jumped away while frantically screaming "What happened to your arm!?"

"Long story, I'll explain later, after we get our jackass teammate out of the ground," He said before standing up and walking away. She reluctantly followed. Naruto suddenly stopped, "Teammate? Team... Aw, son of a..." He ran his fingers through his hair in aggravation. He had learned the meaning of this test.

(With Kakashi)

_"He got it," _He thought as he watched Naruto explain his theory to Sakura, who was skeptic.

(With Naruto and Sakura)

"It makes perfect sense! Why the hell else would he take out only two bells? Have you ever heard of only a two-man team?" Naruto asked the frustratingly persistent girl.

"Maybe he just wants to train me and Sasuke," For that comment, she was slapped upside her head by Naruto's iron hand.

"For the love of Kami! You're supposed to be a fucking bookworm, but you're just a worthless fangirl living in a fantasy land. Grow up and help me do this, or get the hell out of my way." Naruto furiously exclaimed before waklking into the woods.

"I'm not living in a fantasy world. I'll get that bell with Sasuke and you'll be sent back to the academy like the pathetic loser you are." She screamed before running into the clearing.

Naruto noticed that she didn't deny being a worthless fangirl.

"You know it's gonna be impossible to work with these two, right?" He asked without looking up.

"I hoped that being around you would have changed them for the better," Kakashi said before reaching down and ruffling Naruto's hair.

"You would've passed the test for trying to get her to work with you, at least." He commented before disappearing.

Naruto was about to follow him only to be stopped in his tracks by the alarm clock bell ringing.

He sighed as he walked to the three posts in the center of the clearing.

(Ten minutes later)

Naruto gulped down another two vicodins as he amusingly watched Sakura try to escape from her predicament.

Kakashi had decided that she was to be tied to the post since she hadn't really put any effort into trying to get the bells.

"After much consideration, I have decided not to send you three to the academy." He cheerfully said. Sakura cheered and Sasuke smirked. Naruto sighed and leaned on the right post as his animals got situated on his person.

"I have decided to bump Sasuke and Sakura from the entire ninja program and to have Naruto placed onto another team for another chance to become a full-fledged genin." Much to Naruto's shock and Sakura and Sasuke's dismay.

"But you said that I "would've passed" I assumed that it meant I failed." Naruto confusingly stated.

"I may not have passed you, but you have the potential of an incredible shinobi. So i'll give you to another team to get another chance to prove yourself." He explained with his'eye' smile. He heard Sasuke growl and countered his assault by throwing him to the ground and holding Sasuke's wrist behind his back.

"You can't do that to him." Sakura exclaimed. Kakashi chuckled bitterly.

"Just imagine if I were an enemy shinobi right now," he reached into his pouch and took out a kunai. He held it to Sasuke's neck while staring at Naruto. "Naruto, kill Sakura now or Sasuke dies!" He ordered.

Naruto just raised his eyebrow. "Don't tempt me, I killed a nurse yesterday, and Sakura's death won't affect the villages current manpower that much, if any at all." He explained while petting Mugen and stroking Jins head.

"Good deduction," Kakashi stated before releasing Sasuke and walking to the large crystal-shaped stone on the opposite end of the clearing.

"Do any of you know what this monument represents?" He asked only to get shaking heads to indicate 'no'.

"This is the memorial stone, and on it are the names of all Hidden leaf shinobi who have been KIA." He explained. "If there was anything I learned from my days as a genin, it was my teammates last words to me, Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are beyond trash," He continued. "I want you three to think about this and you two to eat the box lunches that I've prepared. Under no circumstance are you to feed anything to Sakura. I'll give you one last chance to prove that you can work together and pass my test. I'll be back later." he said before disappearing.

Naruto opened his box and placed it on the ground so Mugen and Jin could eat the food inside. Sasuke growled and opened his before digging in.

"Sasuke, Give some of your food to Sakura." Naruto said after a few minutes.

Sasuke sneered. "What makes you think that just because you somehow kissed up to the new teacher, you can boss me around."

Naruto sighed again before taking another Vicodin, "The fact that we need to be at full srength for the test that he's going to give us, says to do what I just said." He replied before taking out an apple and begin eating it.

Sasuke looked at Naruto's arm and scowled. "Tell me about that arm first." He demanded.

Naruto finished his apple and threw the core into the woods. "It all started after the genin exam...." Naruto finished his story after ten minutes. He left out the parts about the technocytes special abilities.

After he finished, he knew what was coming. "Give it to me!" Sasuke demanded.

"I can't just "give" a killing virus to you, Duck-ass. It would drive you mad from the transformation and then i'd have to kill you. Normally I wouldn't complain about that little treat but I can't let the council have any reason to execute me." He explained before shooting a metal web at Sasuke's box lunch and zipping it into his hand. He tried to feed Sakura but she refused to let him feed her.

"You can either eat it or I can make an I.V. and put the food in you that way." She started eating immediately.

"I believe that I said not to feed her under any circumstance," Kakashi said from right behind Naruto.

Naruto and Sakura screamed.

"I don't really have a choice, I guess you all pass." Naruto and Sakura cheered while Sasuke smirked.

"Naruto, the Hokage wants to talk to you. The rest of you will stay behind for a lecture." He said.

Naruto immediately ran off.

(Council meeting Chambers)

"Why have you called us here, Lord Hokage?" Hiashi Hyuga asked the Hokage. Among the Third in the room were the individual clan heads and Sarutobi's advisors. Shikaku Nara, Inoichi Yamanaka, Choza Akimichi, Tsume Inuzuka, and Shibi Aburame. The Advisors were Sarutobi's old teammates from his genin days. The others were civillian council members who were not really worth mentioning and the old war-hawk Danzo.

"I called you all here to speak of a possibly new bloodline in the village." He said.

The room's occupants all had surprised reactions.

"He should be here in a few minutes." He said and was proven right when Naruto burst in through the door, panting from running all the way there.

"Sorry i'm late, old man. Kakashi-sensei's test took longer than I thought," He said as he stood next to the thirds chair.

"What is he doing here?" A civillian councilman asked nastily.

"He is here to be examined and possibly given a clan status and position on the council depending on the results of his examination."

"Really?" Naruto asked.

"Why would you give that thing a position of power?"

Sarutobi was about to interject but was beaten to it by Naruto. "Unless you want me to show you what this arm can really do, you'd better shut up," He said, he instinctively grew the glaive in his palm much to everyones shock. Danzo sweated slightly when he realized what that was.

"Is that why you want to give him a clan status?" Tsume asked.

"I believe that you all know what this arm is made from, and I can assure you, Danzo, that there will be reprocussions," Sarutobi said to the council and glared at Danzo. "This ability could possibly be passed to his children and the rest of his descendents. Imagine it, Shinobi that can grow their weapons from the palm of their hands. I propose that Naruto be given a clan status and all of the benefits with it." He finished.

The shinobi council contemplated this decision as the civillian council blatantly objected but were ignored. Naruto was a nervous wreck this whole time, _"Oh my God! This is huge! I might get a seat among the council! And better yet, I might be able to start my own clan,"_ The thought of his own clan, children running around a yard with him and a shadowed sillhouette of a beautiful figure, he pictured as his wife standing next to him, holding a blonde-haired baby, flew around in his head.

"We have come to a decision." Hiashi stated when everyone was done murmuring. Naruto felt like his heart stopped.

"We accept your proposition and we will give Naruto Uzumaki a Clan head status with the benefits," He said.

"Which are...?" Naruto asked curiously.

"A seat among the Ninja council and because you are the founder of a clan, you must have five wives at the least." Sarutobi explained.

Naruto nodded his head at the explaination. Then his eyes widened. "Did you just say five wives?" He stupidly asked. He unknowingly, once again, absorbed his glaive.

They all nodded.

"Ahhhh! I need a drink and some Vicodin." He walked to a cabinet on the end of the other side of the room and pulled out a jar of sake, he pulled out three Vicodin pills and swallowed them down with the sake.

"Please explain the pros and cons about this thing to these nice people for me." He held up the jar of sake. "Uzumaki, out!" He said before falling backwards in a dead faint. The jar fell and shattered into pieces.

That's chapter one of my new story, I hope you all like it and I am very sorry for any mistakes.

Please review!


	2. Chapter 2

Here's chapter two of my Naruto story. I have to thank all of you, on behalf of myself and my partner, Queenofthesapphiredragon, for all of your inspiration in the making of this story. The first night after I posted this freakin' thing, I got fifty-three e-mails relating to this story.

Chapter two: Konohamaru, D-ranks and the Hidden Wave village massacre!

(In the Hokage's office)

Naruto woke up on the couch in the Hokage's, under a blanket and groaned, his head was killing him.

"About time you woke up." Kakashi said as he held out his hand which held a couple of Vicodin, which Naruto gratefully accepted. He looked under the blanket to see that his shirt was gone, along with his ninja pouch that held his Vicodin.

"What did I miss?" He asked after he swallowed the pills. He saw his pouch on the Hokage's desk.

"Not much, really." A woman answered. Naruto looked at the direction of the Hokage's desk to see three adults looking at him. One was a very attractive woman in her mid to late-twenties with red irises and black hair, and other than her eyes, there was nothing unusual about her. There was also a guy that looked similar to the Third due to the brown beard and the cigarrete in his mouth, he looked to be in his early thirties. And finally...

_"OH, MY GOD!!!!"_ Naruto mentally screamed in terror at the sight of the final stranger in the room. He was a man in his mid-thirties wearing a green leotard with orange leg-warmers. His eyebrows were thicker than hell and his hair was a low bowl-cut.

"Is the circus in town? If they are, then someone hide Jin, he's wanted by those assholes. Wait a minute! Where the hell are those two?" Naruto stated, staring at the guy, then looking around the room for his companions. The others sweatdropped as the man with the eyebrows burst into tears.

"Your animals are fine. They're at the Inuzuka compound to get a checkup and to recieve a collar and tag to signify them as leaf-ninja animals. I almost forgot, This is Kurenai Yuhi, a recently promoted jonin," He pointed to the lady who waved at him.

"Aside from the eyes being slightly out of wack, you are probably the most normal-looking person in this room from my point-of-view." He said casually, as though talking to a very beautiful woman didn't affect him at all.

"That's a nice way to say it." She replied.

He gave her his foxy grin before turning back to Kakashi. "This is Asuma Sarutobi, Lord Hokage's son," He continued, he pointed to the bearded guy who puffed out smoke from his mouth and nodded at him.

Naruto narrowed his eyes curiously, which made him look more like a fox, "Aside from the cig. you're second to her." He said, again, casually.

"Nice to know." Asuma said.

"And this...is Might Guy." Kakashi finished miserably. Naruto raised an eyebrow in confusion until Guy spoke.

"AH, YOUNG NARUTO-KUN! I HEARD FROM MY ETERNAL RIVAL, KAKASHI, THAT YOU HAVE PROVEN TO BE A QUITE WORTHY ADVERSARY!!!" He, literally, screamed.

Naruto's eyebrow twitched. _"Is this guy really a jonin-sensei?" _He mentally asked himself.

"I'm not even gonna comment on this dude." He said. Guy did an anime fall as the other jonin chuckled.

"Where's the old man?" Naruto asked when he realized the seat behind the desk was empty.

"He's dealing with the civillian council. They weren't exactly happy with you being given so much political power." Kurenai explained.

"Figures! I don't even know why he keeps them around, all they do is bitch and complain about pretty much every decision he makes." Naruto commented. All the jonin nodded in agreement.

The third walked in before they could converse further.

"Sorry it took so long. They put up quite a fight." He apologized. The other occupants of the room nodded. Naruto removed the blanket and stretched his arms and back. Due to his shirtlessness, everyone noticed that he wasn't exactly thin, he had a lean and slightly muscular figure.

_"Hello!" _Kurenai thought though she was slightly perturbed at the sight of his half-metallic arm.

"Sorry if the arm bothers any of you. Where's my shirt?" Naruto said. He noticed Kurenai's gaze that went from his figure to his arm.

"That's my fault, I had it sent to a tailor to have a few adjustments made. I have to say, that outfit seemed to fit your situation." Hiruzen commented.

Naruto shrugged. They heard scratching coming from the door and Asuma walked over and opened it. When it opened, Mugen walked in with a bag that had the kanji for "Ichiraku Ramen" in red on the front in his mouth as well as a bandanna with a leaf encrested-plate. He trotted up to Naruto and put the bag down at his feet and began wagging his tail.

"You're getting a whole pig for this!" Naruto declared and scratched him in between the ears. Mugen rolled over and his leg kicked in happiness. An birds screech was heard out the window and they looked outside to see Jin flying twards them with Naruto's sweatshirt in his talons, a leaf encrusted ring was on his right leg. From what Naruto could tell, the hood was changed from black to orange,_"Old man knew i'd miss my favorite color."_ "How the hell did you two get these things for me!?" He asked after putting on his shirt and glove. He then began stroking Jin's neck.

"I gave them the authority and I alerted Ichiraku and the tailors that a certain animal would arrive to retrieve the items in question." Hiruzen ezplained.

"Did they believe you?" Naruto asked before digging into his ramen.

"They do now." He said. Naruto chuckled.

"Now, onto business. Your evaluations of your individual teams?" The third asked the jonin.

"Mine passed, their teamwork isn't anywhere near as efficient as their parents, but after some hardcore training, it should turn out pretty good. Ino's got an attitude that should keep Shikamaru awake long enough to get some work done, Choji's a little soft, but i'll toughen him up. Shikamaru's probably the laziest genin that'll ever be inserted into our ranks, but considering his IQ's over two-hundred, I can't really complain." Asuma stated.

"Mine's not too bad, Hinata's shy and quiet but she's got incredible potential for her age, she just needs to come out of her shell and speak up. Shino's just like the rest of his clan, quiet and logical. He's gonna do great. Kiba might be a problem, he's brash and impatient, not to mention he's got the idea that he's a ladies man. He has considerable tracking skills and his canine-based taijutsu skills are not something to sniff at, no pun intended." Kurenai stated.

"My team barely passed, Sasuke's got an arrogant streak and his thirst for power isn't welcome in the ninja world, he views his teammates like dead weight. He has decent control and stores, taijutsu consists of his family's "Interception fist", he's also capable of using fire style ninjutsu. Sakura's even worse, she's got next-to-no talent and she worships Sasuke like a deity, Her chakra control is above genin level and that means her chakra stores are probably pitiful. She's able to use the academy-level jutsus like any other genin. All-in-all, she's gonna be tough to work with. Naruto here, has terrible chakra control..." A tickmark appeared on Naruto's head. "...meaning his stores are probably beyond jonin. His skills with his weapons aren't like anything i've ever seen before, he has no fluid style but the instinctive way he uses them are incredible, it's like he was born to be a swordsman or weapon specialist. I'd say his combat abilities are mid-chunin level. His animals are capable of fire and wind type jutsu, scared the hell out of me." Kakashi finished embarrasingly.

Hiruzen nodded.

"I actually wanted to talk to the rest of you." Kakashi added. The other jonin gave him their attention. " I wanted to let the rest of you know that I may give Naruto to you for any mission that you wouldn't mind having him for. I'll be trying to work with Sasuke and Sakura, teaching them the values of teamwork. Naruto can, most likely, work with your teams without an incident, cause he's pretty easy to get along with. I just wanted the OK from the rest of you." He said.

The other jonin contemplated.

"I'll take him for a few missions." _"Hinata would like that."._ Kurenai said.

"Me too." Asuma said.

"My Tenten would like to see your ability to grow weapons and you'd be a good sparring partner for my darling Lee." Gai said joyously.

"Very well, you're all dismissed. Except you, Naruto." The jonin bowed to the Hokage and left the room.

"Kurenai-sensei!" Naruto said to get her attention. She turned to him. "I'd watch your back if I were you, Kiba might try to hump your leg." He advised. She laughed and walked out of the office. Naruto finished his ramen and threw the cup in the trash.

"What's up?" Naruto asked.

"I was curious about your arm's metamorphasis. It's turning more metallic." He said, referring to the metallic forearm and half-metal, half-flesh bicep, shoulder, and shoulder blade.

"I'm not sure, I know about a couple of new abilities called steal and aftertouch. Steal is, pretty much, self-explanatory. Aftertouch lets me control the way my weapons are thrown if they leave my hand. It's only temporary and the thrown weapon will eventually fly back into my hand, if it can't return, it evaporates." Naruto explained. They were interrupted by the door flying open and a small voice shouting, "Today i'll finally beat you, Old man."

Naruto looked at the door to see a boy, roughly eight years-old, with a long blue scarf and a missing tooth. He ran at the hokage with a kunai in his hand. He tripped and Naruto used his metallic webbing to snatch the kunai knife away before he could possibly cut himself upon impact.

"Thanks for that, Naruto." Hiruzen said. Naruto nodded.

"Hey, You tripped me." The boy accused with his finger pointed at Naruto.

"Honorable Grandson!" Another voice exclaimed. Naruto looked at the door again to see an jonin guy with black rimmed and shaded sunglasses.

"He's your grandson? You never told me about him." Naruto exclaimed.

"You didn't ask." He said simply.

"HEY, DON'T IGNORE ME!!" The boy yelled before charging at Naruto. Naruto grabbed the back of the kids shirt with his right hand and held him in the air.

"It's rude to demand things from people you don't know." Naruto boringly lectured.

"Release the Honorable Grandson right this instant." The jonin demanded.

"You're probably just like the rest of the people, you'll treat me specially just because i'm the grandson of the Hokage." The boy goaded. He was proven wrong when Naruto's left fist impacted with the top of his head and he was dropped to the floor.

"Old man, I'll see you later." Naruto whistled for his animals and Jin perched himself on his shoulder while Mugen climbed onto his shirt and made himself comfortable in his hood. Unknown to him and the jonin, the kid followed Naruto after he left. The third just chuckled.

(With Naruto, Ten minutes later)

_"Okay, This is getting boring." _Naruto thought as he walked down to a random training ground. The kid had been following him around for the last seven minutes. He turned a cornerand stopped in the middle of the empty street and the kid had sidled against a wooden fence while holding a sheet that was painted to blend him in with the wood over his head.

Only problem was that he was holding it horizontally.

"The sad thing is that a two year-old could see through that. Alright, show yourself." Naruto demanded. The boy did and chuckled like he was a sinister movie villian.

"You saw through my disguise. You're better than I thought." He said.

_"It wasn't that hard." _Naruto thought.

"It's settled then, You're gonna be my new sensei." He declared.

*Silence*

"Hmm..." Naruto hummed before turning to walk away.

"Hey, wait!" He yelled to Naruto.

"Sorry, Kiddo. I don't have time to play around with you. I've got a lot of work to do." He didn't even turn around.

He kept walking to training ground seven, where he and his team took their test, and grew out his glaive. He focused on a loose branch of a random tree and threw the disc at it. He used Aftertouch to will the glaive at the branch and it was grabbed between the ring and the blade. Naruto held out his hand and the glaive evaporated before touching his palm, which held the tree branch.

_"Not too much of a weigh limit, twenty to thirty pounds at best, I suppose. Maybe a size limit?" _Naruto thought before throwing the branch in a bush elicting a small "thunk" and a small voice yelling "Ouch!"

_"Oh, don't tell me..."_ Naruto mentally groaned. He grew a long chain-whip and swung it in the middle of the bush. The third's grandson was yanked out of the bush with the chain wrapped around his torso.

"That's awesome!!" He yelled at Naruto.

"Why are you following me?" Naruto asked him irritatingly.

"Because you're strong! I want you to teach me how to do that." He exclaimed gleefully.

Naruto sighed. He had no time for this.

"Naruto? What are you doing here? Honorable Grandson?" A voice asked, surprised. He looked behind him to see Kurenai and team eight with her. Hinata shyly waved before discreetly hiding behind Shino who nodded his greetings. Kiba ignored him, for the most part and Akamaru growled at Mugen and Jin. Mugen suddenly jumped down from Naruto's hood and rushed to Hinata before jumping into her arms and licking her cheek, causing her to giggle and Akamaru to growl even more.

"I'm sorry, did you need this training ground? I'll leave if you want. Sorry about Mugen, he doesn't normally take to strangers that well." He said apologetically.

Hinata stuttered out an "it's okay" before Mugen began licking her again.

"The question is "What is your worthless ass doing here, you dead-last freak?" Kiba said snidely. Kurenai slapped the back of his head.

"I take it you informed them of my condition?" Naruto stated more than asked.

"I felt that it was right, they'd be working with you in the future so they'd have a grip on your unique abilities." Kurenai explained apologetically.

"Don't worry about it, I'll leave once i'm done dealing with this little guy." Naruto jabbed his thumb at the thirds grandson.

"My name's Konohamaru!" He shouted.

"Konohamaru, huh? Not a bad name." Naruto complimented.

"Honorable Grandson! Get away from him this instant!" The glasses-wearing jonin from earlier ordered Naruto. He stared at Naruto with an ice-cold glare

_"Those eyes, he's just like everyone else." _Naruto mentally growled.

"Leave me alone, Ebisu-sensei! He's gonna teach me how to be Hokage." Konohamaru demanded.

Naruto narrowed his eyes in thought. _"That's why he's so eager for me to teach him?"_

"You shouldn't associate yourself with the likes of him, he'll only slow you down. My teachings are the only shortcut to becoming Hokage." Ebisu yelled as he tried dragging Konohamaru away by pulling on his scarf.

"Shortcut...?" Naruto growled. He made a cross-shaped handseal. "Multi-Shadow-Clone Jutsu!" He shouted and twenty-three solid Naruto clones surrounded Ebisu. The real Naruto could be found due to Jin being on his shoulder. Team eight backed away from them.

_"Be careful, Naruto-kun."_ Hinata thought.

_"Loser's gonna get killed here," _Kiba smirked at his thought.

"So, the rumors of you learning that technique are true. No matter! I'm not like that pathetic traitor, Mizuki. I'm a special jonin." Ebisu said snidely.

"Oh, really? TRANSFORM!" Naruto shouted and his clones did the same.

When the smoke cleared, every Naruto clone had changed into a sexy female wth blonde pigtails and whisker marks. The excess smoke from the transformations covered their "goody parts". They all grabbed Ebisu while cooing and giggling.

"WAAAH." Ebisu and Kiba exclaimed before flying back from massive nosebleeds.

"HUH?" Kurenai exclaimed while Hinata merely turned crimson with Mugen wagging his tail in her arms. Shino simply raised an eyebrow.

The clones disappeared and Naruto changed back while giggling. "Gotcha with my new Harem Jutsu." He gloated to Ebisu's unconcious form.

Naruto walked over to Konohamaru and crouched down so they could see eye-to-eye. "Tell me, Kid, Why do you want to be Hokage?" He asked gently.

"I want to be Hokage so people would stop treating me like the "Grandson of the Third Hokage" and call me by my real name." He explained heatedly.

Naruto sighed. "I understand, Konohamaru, I really do. But becoming Hokage won't happen for another twenty-or-so years for you and that's only if you want it badly enough. I don't care about what that loser, Ebisu, says, there is no such thing as a shortcut to becoming Hokage, or anything in life. The only way to become Hokage is if you work hard enough and put as much effort into it as you can." Naruto passionately said.

The concious members of team eight smiled(except Shino) as Konohamaru declared Naruto as his rival and ran off somewhere to train.

"Thanks for being patient, you can have the training ground if you want it. Come on, Mugen, let's get to the Old man's office for the team meeting." He said before turning to leave. Mugen licked Hinata's cheek again before she put him down. He jumped onto Naruto's jacket and settled down in his hood.

After he was out of sight, Kurenai turned to her team. "What do you think? Could you work with him without any problems?" She asked.

Shino adjusted his glasses, "I believe working alongside him will be...interesting, if what we just saw is any indication," He said lowly. The thought of Naruto's Sexy or Harem Jutsu's gave him chills.

Hinata turned slightly pink, "I...I thi...I think we all could get along f...fine. I'm j...just worried about K...Kiba-kun and his pride." She said before glancing at his, still, unconcious body.

_"He may pose some problems with his attitude."_ Kurenai thought. Once Kiba awoke from his nosebleed-induced sleep they all began their training.

(In the Hokage's office)

"LUCY, I'M HOOOOOOOOME!!" Naruto slurred when he entered the office.

His team and the third sweatdropped.

"You overdid the Vicodin, didn't you?" Kakashi asked.

"Maaayybe." Naruto said as he plopped down on the couch.

"Anyway, we'd like to request our first mission, my lord." Kakashi respecfully asked.

"We can handle anything you throw at us." Sasuke boasted. Sakura's eyes were starry as she stared at her hero.

_"Oh boy!" _Naruto thought.

The Third had a mischevious look in his eyes. "Very well."

(One hour later)

"Picking weeds is no job for a shinobi, and it's purely degrading to an Uchiha." Sasuke grumbled loudly as he jerked another weed from an elderly lady's garden.

"Horticultures a hobby of mine, so I ain't complaining." Naruto chirped mockingly to the fuming Uchiha. "How you hoding up, Sakura?" He asked the pinkette.

"Shut up, Naruto!" She growled and tried to pull a thick weed out of the ground.

Naruto chuckled as he grew a small, unique shuriken(the ones the small decepticon uses in the first Transformers movie) and threw it at the plant. The sudden loss of resistance made Sakura fall backwards on her ass. She sat up and growled at the smiling-like-a-fox Naruto who caught the shuriken when it came back to him.

"Enough, Sakura. Finish your part of the job." Kakashi chided. He stood at the outside of the little garden along with the elderly woman, who was their client. He read his book and giggled as he read the "good" parts as his students did the chore/mission.

_"Disgraceful."_ Sasuke growled again before roughly jerking another plant from the ground.

(One month later)

"Do you think we could get at least a C-rank mission, Old man? Even i'm getting bored with walking dogs and gardending. The babysitting I can handle." Naruto said calmly. After an entire month of chores labeled as "missions" he was getting irritated. Mind you, he enjoyed babysitting because the young ones liked him and they only shat and threw up on Sakura and Sasuke. He babysat with team eight and the baby's treated Kiba the same way as Sasuke and Sakura, Shino was treated neutrally and they absolutely adored Hinata.

(Flashback)

_"I hate babysitting these smelly barfbags!" Kiba exclaimed as he wiped baby puke off his his jacket with a wet cloth. Shino stood next to him with an eyebrow raised._

_"Then why do you bother trying to make the children like you when it's obvious they don't?"_

_Kiba snorted. "Because Hinata will see that i'm the best with the kids and then she'll be all over me," He boasted._

_Kurenai shook her head at her student's idiocy and peered into the room where her third student and Naruto were putting the children to sleep._

_Hinata softly hummed a gentle lullaby to a six month-old baby girl while gently rocking her to sleep._

_Naruto smiled as he listened to her angelic voice from across the room with the girls twin brother in his arms. "I don't need to sing, Hinata-chan's doing a good enough job, don't ya think?" Naruto asked the boy quietly. The baby boy giggled in response._

_After a few minutes of listening to Hinata sing, the babies fell asleep and they placed them into their individual cribs._

_"You're gonna be a very good mother one day." Naruto complimented her once the door was shut._

_Hinata turned scarlet and managed a few squeaks before passing out. Naruto chuckled as he picked her up and laid her down on the couch. There were no incidents after she awoke._

(Flashback end)

"It just so happens that I have a mission for you and for team eight," The elder man said. Iruka was about to protest but was cut off by the third holding his hand up.

Naruto smiled at the thought of working with them again, minus Kiba.

"There's a mission request from a bridge-builder of the Hidden Wave village." The third explained as he searched for the file in his desk drawers.

Suddenly, the door opened to reveal an elderly man wearing travelers clothing and drinking sake. "Heh? Are these the brats assigned to protect me?" He asked gruffly. He gazed at them harshly, "The dark-haired one's got a look in his eye that I don't like. The pink-haired girl looks like she's in over her head." He muttered loudly.

"Welcome to my world!" Naruto said before swallowing a Vicodin.

"And the last one's got a metal arm and is on drugs and has a couple of animals?" He miserably moaned.

Mugen looked at the old man from over Naruto's shoulder and burped, sending flames into the guys face.

His face's upper half was charred black and he coughed up smoke.

"Sorry about that, he and Jin had some bugs and they're not quite agreeing with them." Naruto cheekily said while petting his animals.

"Anyway, my name is Tazuna, a world famous bridgebuilder. I expect all of you brats to guard me with your lives." He said seriously.

The third excused them all once a time was made and told Naruto to stay behind and Kakashi was told to inform Kurenai..

Sasuke had his eyes on Naruto as he walked out of the office._"Why does he always have to stay behind after our meetings with the Hokage? Is he getting special scrolls with powerful jutsus? What is he hiding?" _He thought heatedly.

"What's up?" Naruto asked as he stood in fron of the desk.

"I've been thinking about your arms elemental abilities, have you experimented with them yet?" Hiruzen asked the young Jinchuriki.

Naruto shook his head no. "With all these missions I would've had time, but Sasuke's been watching me like a man posessed."

The elder nodded in understanding. He reached into his desk and pulled out a zippo. He flipped the top open and lit the flame. He used it to light his pipe before throwing it to Naruto. Naruto caught it and looked at the Old man quizzically.

"It'll suffice for setting your weapons alight, give it a try." He suggested.

Naruto grew his glaive and lit the flame under it. The effect was instantaneous as his weapon was ablaze in an instant.

"Whoa!" Naruto commented and re-absorbed the weapon to set the fire out.

"The other elements, you'll have to improvise cause I don't know of a method to use them instantly like that." He said, motioning to the lighter in Naruto's hand. His face then turned grave,"Theres something very important that you need to be told, Naruto." He said gravely.

Naruto stiffened, What could be so important that he would sound so serious about?

"It's about your lineage." He continued. Naruto's eyes widened and he grabbed a seat in front of the Third's desk. "Your father's name was Minato Namikaze, The Fourth Hokage." At this, Naruto fell out of his seat. The Fourth Hokage was his father!? That meant...

"He was the man who sealed the Nine-tailed beast within you after your birth." The Third continued. "If he had survived the sealing, he would have raised you with every bit of love and care that any parent would give." Naruto had tears streaming down his stricken face.

"What about my mother?" He croaked.

"Her name is Kushina Uzumaki, she was labeled as KIA but her body was never found. I believe that she was misinformed about you after the sealing process and is now wandering around the lands with a broken spirit. I have a picture of her...here." He handed a photograph to Naruto of a beautiful woman with red hair and bright green eyes, her stomach was swollen, indicating that she was well into her pregnancy. Naruto teared up even more at the thought of her carrying him inside of her. "You have my permission to ask anyone about her in the villages that you visit except the Earth country villages, they are still incredibly hostile to us after the war. And if word got out about you being their greatest enemy's son, it would invoke them to send assasin after assasin after you." He finished.

"Where did she come from? And who were my father's teammates?" Naruto frantically asked.

"Your mother's home village was the former Hidden Whirlpool village. Her family was famous and infamous for their extraordinary swordsmanship skills. It was destroyed some time ago and she immigrated here, eventually meeting your father and marrying him. Your fathers genin teammates were Hiashi Hyuga and the other died several years ago. I have to stress how important it is that you don't tell anyone about this unless you can trust them with your life."

Naruto meekly thanked him before leaving the office to let team 8 know of the mission, tomorrow.

He headed for the Inuzuka vet first. He knocked on the door and a brown-haired beauty with the Inuzuka tattoos on her cheeks answered.

"Hi Naruto! How can I help you?" She asked as she petted Mugen and Jin.

"Hi Hana, My team has a mission tomorrow at around nine A.M. and team 8 has been asked to join us, will you tell Kiba for me?" He asked thoughtfully.

"Sorry! but he's come down with a flu that's been going around." Hana said.

Naruto shrugged and thanked her before jumping towards the Aburame clan estates. Once he arrived he knocked on the door and only had to wait for a few minutes before Shibi Aburame answered it. "Hello, Uzumaki-san! How may I help you?" He said monotonously.

"Uh yeah, My team has a C-rank mission in the morning at around 9:00 A.M. and team 8 has been asked to accompany us, so if you could inform Shino for me, that would be nice." Naruto requested.

"I apologize, We are breeding a new type of insect colony and Shino will be needed to assist with supervizing them." He said.

Naruto nodded and thanked him and bowed respectfully before jumping to his final destination. Naruto didn't like the Hyuga estates very much due to the feeling of melancholy that it gave off. Once he arrived, he was halted by the guards.

"What business do you have here?" One asked.

"I'm here to speak to either Hinata or Hiashi Hyuga regarding a C-rank mission tomorrow morning." Naruto spoke like he'd rehearsed it.

The guard seemed to contemplate this for a moment before walking into the compound. He reappeared a few minutes later with a scowl on his face, "Lord Hiashi will see you, now." He said before motioning for Naruto to follow him. They walked through the compound and made their way through the courtyard and in it was Hinata who looked to be sparring with another Hyuga who had a dark frown upon his face. He looked like he was about fifteen and he had bandages around his forehead and his right arm and leg. He and Hinata had their clan traits, the Byakugan, activated and were in a fierce battle, too fierce for a simple spar.

_"That doesn't look like it'll end well," _Naruto thought. Mugen was about to jump out and run to her but Naruto held him back, "We can surprise her after she finishes her fight with whoever the hell that is." He said and placed the fox back in his hood. He and his guide reached a room, the door slid open and Hiashi Hyuga sat crosslegged in the center.

"Can I help you, Uzumaki-san?" He asked. Naruto sat down across from him in the same style.

"Team 7 is going on a mission outside of the village tomorrow and team 8 has been asked to accompany us. I'm here to inform you and Hinata about this mission." Naruto said regally.

Hiashi nodded, "You may inform Hinata after her spar with Neji." He said. Naruto nodded and bowed before standing and was about to leave the room to watch Hinata's spar but he sat himself back down and gazed into Hiashi's eyes.

"C-can you t-tell me about my f-father? Please!" He pleaded.

Hiashi's eyes widened and softened after a few seconds. "Hiruzen told you, I assume?"

Naruto nodded.

"Your father was the greatest friend that anyone could ever ask for. He was the one that introduced me to my late wife and I was the best man at his private wedding to Kushina, it was kept very discreet to prevent anyone from knowing. There is another matter that I will have to discuss with you after your mission, it concerns a deal we made about you and my eldest daughter." He seemed lost in memories of his friend. After a few stories and Naruto asking various questions, he left after giving Hiashi a hug in gratitude. He made his way back to the courtyard where Hinata was still sparring.

Upon his arrival he saw that Hinata wasn't doing too well, her opponent, Neji, was rushing her like this was a battle between fierce enemies. Hinata slipped on a rock and Neji took advantage of her slip and jabbed her in her stomach with three Gentle fist strikes, causing her to cough up blood. He kicked her in the face and sent her flying back into the pond. He jumped into the air with his open palm glowing with chakra and was about to slam it onto her heart but was sent flying into a wall by a powerful gust of wind. He turned his angered Byakugan eyes to the intruder only to see a silver-winged hawk land on a rock next to Hinata's struggling-to-stand form.

She gasped when she saw Jin, and with him here, that meant...

"There's a fine line between a spar and a battle, you just crossed it." Naruto said as he walked over to Hinata and gently scooped her into his arms. She gasped again when she saw him and promptly fainted when she realized that she was being held bridal-style.

"This doesn't concern gutter trash like you!" Neji furiously exclaimed. He sprinted to Naruto with his Byakugan blazing only to jump to avoid the glaive that grew from Naruto's hand and was thrown at him. Neji hatefully glared at Naruto as he laid Hinata against a pillar and recalled his glaive.

"You wanna dance, Pretty-boy?" Naruto goaded. He suddenly grasped his metallic arm as it pulsated and was covered by its transparent/greenish mist. The elbow and part of the bicep became pure metal and the only parts that were half-metal, half-skin were his shoulder and his shoulderblade._"Powerthrow!"_ Naruto thought before smiling sinisterly. He recalled the glaive, pulled his arm back and threw it as hard as he possibly could. Once it left his hand, it was covered by a yellowish-brown mist.

Neji watched as the weapon missed him and cleaved the large rock behind him in half. The bladed disc was then recalled back into Naruto's hand where it was reabsorbed. Naruto turned back to Hinata and picked her up again. "I take it that you're Naruto Uzumaki." He guessed, and was proven right by Naruto's nod. He was about to charge Naruto but a plume of fire from above him blocked his path. When the fires died down, he looked up to see a snarling fox with smoke coming from between its teeth being held in the hawk's talons.

"Make another move and you'll have a firestorm in your face, courtesy of my little friends there." Naruto growled and jumped out of the compound, towards the hospital with Hinata in his arms. Jin flew after him with Mugen still

Neji growled and turned around to see Hiashi Hyuga glaring at him. Hiashi shook his head in disappointment before walking away from his nephew.

"Aren't you going to send someone after him? He just kidnapped your precious heiress." Neji asked venomously.

"She's in good hands. Better ones than yours" Hiashi replied before walking out of sight.

(At the Hidden Leaf Hospital, twenty minutes later)

_"Ow! Where am I?"_ Hinata thought as she awoke in a white room.

"Oh you're awake? That's a relief." A voice exclaimed. Hinata looked at the door to see a young female nurse holding a clipboard in her arms.

"H-how did I get here?" Hinata stuttered. The nurse smiled.

"A young man with blonde hair brought you here after he explained your injuries. I swear, you Hyuga need a new fighting style, damage to the chakra network and inner organs is tough to heal, even for medical ninjas." The jurse complained.

"I-I'm sorry!" Hinata apologized.

"Don't you worry about a thing, little lady. You're all patched up but I'd recommend staying the night just to be cautious." She advised before leaving.

Hinata laid back down for a few minutes and was startled by a birds screech. She turned to the window to see Jin flying away and he left a bag hanging on the window ledge. Hinata got out of the bed and retrieved the bag to see a sealed bowl of Ichiraku Ramen and a letter. She put the bowl on the nightstand next to her bed and read the letter.

_"Dear Hinata,"_

_I bought you some ramen as a get-well soon gift, I hope it's okay. If I ever see that guy that hurt you again, I'll probably kill him. He came very close to killing you if I hadn't intervened. If he threatens you or even looks at you wrong, I want to know so I can shove a jagged spear up his ass._

_OH yeah, Our teams have a mission tomorrow at 9:00 A.M. so you better heal up fast. We'll be out of the village for at least a week so be sure to pack up._

_-Naruto._

Hinata sighed dreamily at Naruto's declaration to protect her. _"I wonder if he's realizing my feelings for him." _She thought giddily. She put the letter on the nightstand before opening the bowl of beef ramen and eating.

(The next morning)

"Are you on time for once!?" Kurenai asked when Kakashi showed up at the gate on time. The present five students had wide eyes at the sight of Kakashi.

Kakashi looked offended. "Hey, I can be on time when it's nesessary. Where's Naruto?" He asked when he realized that everyone but his enigmatic student was present.

"I'm right here!" Naruto yelled and panted as he skidded to a stop in front of Kakashi. Mugen was sleeping in his hood and Jin had his head under his left wing on Naruto's shoulder.

"What took you?" Kurenai asked.

Naruto chuckled, "Mugen roasted my alarm when it was too irritating for him."

Tazuna arrived a few minutes later and observed his extra prtection. "A pale girl with white eyes. She's probably not gonna make it after ten minutes of traveling." He said before chugging down his sake.

Kurenai was about to protest but was beaten to it by Naruto. "I can assure you that Hinata can more than hold her own in a fight." Naruto assured.

"Whatever, let's just get going." Tazuna grumbled.

They all walked out of the gates and into a deep forest.

"Wow! So this is why it's called the Village Hidden in the Leaves." Naruto commented.

"Are you serious!? All this time, you've never known this small fact about your own home? How stupid are you?" Sakura ranted and was slapped across the head by Kurenai.

"H-have you ever l-left the village before, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked.

"Nope, this is my first time outside of the village walls." Naruto answered.

For the next few hours, the group remained in a comfortable silence. The only unusual thing was a puddle in the middle of the road when it hasn't rained in over three weeks.

Once they were about twenty meters from the puddle, it shifted and two men emerged from it, they were garbed in tattered cloaks and strange masks, one had a clawed gauntlet on his left hand the other had one on his right connected by a bladed chain, they sprinted toward the group and wrapped the chain around Kakashi and Kurenai before anyone could do anything.

"Two down..." One whispered sinisterly. They yanked the chain and the two jonin were sliced apart before the genin's eyes.

"...Six to go!" The other whispered just as sinisterly.

Naruto dashed to them with a spear in hand. Mugen and Jin went to guard Tazuna. The two mystery shinobi ran at him with their chain at the ready. Naruto ducked and let the chain wrap around his spear. He brought the spear to the ground, taking the chain with him. The two mystery ninjas severed the connection with the chain and rushed to the others before Naruto could do anything.

Sakura automatically jumped in front of Tazuna and Sasuke rushed to the two assailants. Hinata stayed with Sakura to assist, medically if necessary.

The two shinobi raised their gauntlets to strike them, only to slam their faces into two metallic arms held out by two shadow clones of Naruto.

"Clothesliner! Saw it on wrestling last night." The real Naruto exclaimed to them. Everyone sweatdropped at him. The clones dispersed after tying up the two assailants.

"That's an interesting finisher," Kakashi commented as he walked out of the shadow of the trees along with Kurenai.

"K-kurenai-sensei!" Hinata exclaimed as she ran and hugged her sensei.

"What took you?" Naruto asked as he recalled his spear and absorbed it.

"We were hoping to observe your reactions to hostile shinobi, in this case, the Demon Brothers, and I must say that i'm proud of all of you for not freezing up. Naruto, you disabled their primary weapon. Sakura, Hinata, you stayed behind to protect Tazuna as the last resort. Sasuke, you supported Naruto as his backup. I have to say that we're very proud of all of you." Kakashi boasted.

"I'll start torturing them for info, Sensei, you go ahead and get something from the drunk." Naruto suggested. He walked over to the Demon brothers and dragged them over to a random tree.

"How are you gonna torture anyone for info, dead last?" Sasuke asked. Kakashi slapped him across the head.

"Like this!" Naruto brought one of his prisoners up to his eye level and began slapping and backhanding him with his metal hand.

"You awake yet?" Naruto asked as the guy groggily mumbled something. He started slapping him again.

"Don't say anything, Gozu." The other grunted.

Naruto stopped, "Oh, he will." Naruto chirped and began slapping again.

"I'll talk! I'll talk! Just, please don't hit me anymore! Sorry Meizu!" Gozu pleaded.

"Pussy!" Meizu groaned. He was silenced when Naruto elbowed him in on top of his head.

"Start talkin' or the bitch-slapping starts again." Naruto boredly said.

"We were hired by Gatou to take out the bridge builder and anyone else that stood in his way." Gozu whimpered. Naruto punched him to knock him out.

"Gatou? Who the hell is that?" Naruto asked the jonin. Tazuna decided to step forward.

"He's known by most as a big-time business tycoon, deals in shipping and trading of various goods, under the table, he ships drugs and weaponry for a price. He's monopolized my country and our economy is nearly dead. If I can complete the bridge and connect us to other lands, we can resume our trading with other countries. That's why Gatou's so threatened by me. Our daimyo doesn't even have very much money, I had to lie and say that this was a C-rank mission because that was all that we could afford." He explained.

"What should we do? This is a B-to-A-rank mission meant for jonin and ANBU at the least. The Demon brothers were only the beginning the next opponent won't be a mere chunin-level ninja." Kakashi contemplated with Kurenai.

"We should continue." Naruto announced. "We've come this far and it's not in my nature to turn down a person in need, unless the person in need is a Dick." He said.

Everyone else agreed and the choice was made. They continued to the Hidden Wave Village.

(Three hours later)

"We're near the bridge, keep quiet." The boat owner whispered as they cruised through the fog. Naruto looked around and noticed a huge bridge.

"Whoa! That thing's huge!" He commented. The others had to agree with him.

"It's the hope of our country." Tazuna muttered solemnly.

They reached the shore, "This is as far as I can take you. Good luck, Tazuna." The sailor whispered.

They walked for a little while longer and Naruto suddenly threw his glaive into the bushes.

"Naruto, What the hell are you doing?" Sakura screamed. Naruto recalled his glaive and in its grasp was a little white rabbit. The little thing was shaking in terror.

"You idiot, it's just a rabbit." Sakura yelled.

"It's more than that, it's summer and this thing's got a winter coat, it's not your lunch, Mugen, knock it off!" Mugen had tried to snap at the bunny. Naruto handed it to Hinata who began petting it to calm it down. "Anyway, why would a rabbit be that color unless it's been indoors? It may have been used as a substitution." Naruto held his glaive at the ready. The jonin put their guard up and the other genin outright ignored Naruto's warning. Hinata released the rabbit and activated her Byakugan as a precaution.

(After twenty more minutes of walking)

"EVERYONE, GET DOWN" Kakashi yelled and tackled Tazuna to the ground as everyone ducked to avoid a large projectile that flew above their heads.

Everyone looked at the object embedded into a tree, which was a large zanpbatou. There was a flurry of movement behind them and the flurry landed on the long hilt of the sword. It was a man in his late twenties with bandages wrapped around his lower face and neck as a makeshift mask and he wore his headband with the scratched Hidden Mist plate on the right side of his head.

"Nicely dodged, Copy-nin Kakashi and Genjutsu mistress Kurenai. I'm here for the bridge builder." He said in a gravelly voice.

"My reputation precedes me. Zabuza Momochi, scourge of the Hidden Mist Village, I presume?" Kakashi said lazily as he and the others stood up.

Zabuza took a moment to analyze his opponents, _"A Hyuga and an Uchiha? One of the last if I recall. And two unknowns, one with pink hair and the last with a metallic arm? Interesting."_ He thought.

"All of you protect Tazuna." Kurenai ordered and took a battle stance alongside Kakashi who lifted his headband from over his eye, revealing that the iris was red and had three tomoe around the pupil.

_"The Sharingan!?" _Sasuke thought at the sight of the eye.

"Is that pink-eye or something?" Naruto stupidly asked.

"It's called the Sharingan, a dojutsu that allows the owner to penetrate and see the reality behind any illusion or spell...and to reflect the power of the magics they penetrate back on those who cast them and that's not the most important fact, it can discern and duplicate its opponents greatest skill." Sasuke explained. _"But the Sharingan eye is supposed to be unique to only a small number of the Uchiha clan."_

"I'm honored to be fighting against the infamous sharingan so quickly, this should be a fun battle." Zabuza crouched down on the hilt of his sword. He did three hand signs, "Ninja art: Hidden Mist jutsu!" He exclaimed. The area was suddenly encompassed by a very dense fog.

Kakashi cursed when he found that the sharingan couldn't help him in this fog and Kurenai's genjutsu was ineffective without a visual of the one the genjutsu was being cast on. He felt a presence to his right but before he could do anything, his leg was hacked by Zabuza's sword, Kakashi screamed in pain before falling to the ground. After the blade touched Kakashi's leg, Zabuza dissolved into water.

"A low-level water clone? That's why we didn't sense it!" Kakashi groaned out. Kurenai rushed to him to treat the wound.

The genin formed a box around Tazuna, "Hinata, can you find him with your Byakugan?" Naruto asked. She shook her head no.

"This mist is laced with chakra, I can't see him in it." She said.

"There are eight points; The larynx, spine, jugular vein, heart, brain, kidneys, lungs, and the subclavian artery. If striked with enough force or with pinpoint accuracy, it can cause instant death." Zabuza's voice echoed from around them.

_"He's going for the bridge builder!!"_ The jonin thought simultaneously.

The genin felt an unwelcome prescence among them, it gave off a serious intent to kill. The genin grabbed Tazuna and jumped out of the way as Zabuza's sword cut through the air. It was suddenly stopped by Naruto's hand firmly grasping it by the edge. The fog lifted, revealing the stalemate to all.

"Impressive! Not many survive a strike from my Guillotine sword." Zabuza complimented.

Naruto gave him a serious stare, "I only have one question for you, it's extremely important to me." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out the picture of his mother. "Have you seen this woman?" He asked as he held it up to Zabuza's face.

Zabuza looked at the picture and back at Naruto. "I may have! But you'll have to beat me if you want me to tell you anything." Naruto's eyes widened and he was kicked in the midriff by his opponent.

Naruto regained his bearings, "All of you, stay out of this! This Brow-less bastard knows where my mother is and i'm going to beat the answers out of him." Naruto declared as he grew out his katana.

Kakashi's eyes widened at Naruto's statement, "Lady Kushina's alive!?" He exclaimed.

Hinata's eyes also widened and her heart soared at the thought of her crush having family.

Naruto nodded, his eyes never leaving Zabuza's. "My mother's alive, sensei. And he knows where she is." Naruto pointed the tip of his blade at Zabuza.

"She's a real livewire, I'll tell you that much, boy." Zabuza commented.

Naruto's eyes narrowed in rage. He dashed forward in an attempt to catch Zabuza off-guard. It didn't work as Zabuza blocked with his own sword. _"Okay, he's obviously trained himself to use the sword like it was as light as a feather, he's above standard jonin level, and has years of experience, where I'm fresh from the academy, i'll have to improvise and keep my ass covered."_

Naruto tossed his blade to his left hand and grasped Zabuza's sword with his right, "Mugen! Jin! Firestorm Jutsu NOW!" He yelled.

Mugen jumped into the air and Jin flew beneath him and Mugen landed on Jin's back. The fox reared his head back and Jin stretched his wings out. Both launched out their respective jutsu and they merged into a raging inferno, heading for Naruto and Zabuza.

*WHOOSH*

The area around them was reduced to cinders due to the intense heat.

Once the flames died down, all that was left was a cindered log and a puddle of steaming water.

_"They both used substitution at the last moment."_ Kakashi thought.

Everyone heard a splash and saw Naruto at the edge of a river and Zabuza standing on it.

"Interesting! You don't have any more tricks up your sleeve, do you?" Zabuza asked, thinking Naruto would spill.

"Go to hell! You're going anyway once you spill about my mother, That I promise you." Naruto snarled.

His comrades were startled at Naruto's tone of voice. None more so than Hinata.

Zabuza actually laughed, "That's more like it, Kid. You're not a real shinobi in my book unless you're willing to kill or be killed, and I can tell that you're more than willing to kill." He said gleefully. He placed his sword on his back and flashed through several handseals, "Water style: Water Dragon jutsu!" He roared. The water underneath him rose into the air and took the shape of a dragon, which roared and dove for Naruto.

Naruto instinctively threw his arm up and, to his surprise, his arm metallized up to half of his bicep revealing a single glowing crack in the metal. A transparent barrier appeared in front of him and it blocked the water jutsu, it didn't stop there, the dragon flew back and impacted on its caster. The glow vanished after the jutsu stopped and the barrier shrank to nothing. Naruto stared wide-eyed at his arm,_ "A shield? That's gonna be useful." _He thought. Naruto dashed to Zabuza's prone form and held the katana to his throat. "Start talking!" He ordered.

"Heheheheheh, What's your name, Kid?" He rasped.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, now where's my mother!?" Naruto growled.

"Heh, she's GUH!!" Before Zabuza could utter another word, three senbon needles pierced into his neck and he slumped over.

"NO! NO! WAKE UP! YOU OWE ME ANSWERS, YOU ASSHOLE!" Naruto screamed as he shook Zabuza's body to no avail.

"I apologize for the intrusion, but I have been searching for him for quite some time." A deepish feminine voice said.

Naruto turned to the voice and saw a boy or girl about two-to-three years older than himself with a mask on.

"Who the hell are you!? Why did you kill him? He owed me answers, dammit!" Naruto fumed. Kurenai appeared and held him back before he could pummel the strange ninja.

"He's a hunter-nin, Naruto. It's his job to track down rogue-nin like Zabuza and kill them." She explained to the grief-stricken boy. He forced himself to relax and walk back to the others as the jonin talked to the hunter-nin.

Naruto walked past the other genin and sat down in-between a tree's roots. He pulled his knees up to his chest and laid his forehead against them.

"N-Naruto-kun, Are y-you okay?" A soft voice asked. Naruto lifted his head to see Hinata looking worriedly at him. He shook his head and took out two pills and swallowed them before putting his head back down.

"Can...can I do a-anything to h-help?" She asked.

"Not unless you can tell me where she is." He held out the picture of his mother. Hinata looked at the picture and smiled softly.

"She's beautiful. I think she looks happy with you being so close to being born." She complimented without stuttering. She noticed that Naruto smiled with a tear rolling down his cheek.

"Someone lied to her about me, told her I died after my birth. She ran off with a broken spirit and never looked back. I didn't know where she was until I heard from Zabuza." He muttered before closing his eyes and passing out, the stress of the last two battles finally getting to him. He almost dropped his mother's picture into a mud puddle but Hinata managed to grab it.

"Kurenai-sensei, Naruto's asleep." She informed her teacher after the hunter-nin vanished with Zabuza's body.

"Good, he deserves it. Is that his mother?" She asked when she noticed the picture in her student's hand.

Tazuna walked closer to see what the fuss was about but when he saw the woman in the photo, he gasped loudly. "That's the Red Death!" He exclaimed.

Everyone looked at him curiously, "She's the main reason that I hired you, she protected me for the last three month for almost no charge and all she asked for was a place to stay until I completed the bridge. She used her kenjutsu skills to fend off most of Gatou's movements and slightly raised the spirits of the villagers, she even helped my grandson see that heroes still exist after his stepfather was killed by Gatou. It ended when Gatou kidnapped Inari and ordered her to surrender herself to him or my grandson would die, unfortunately, she did after Inari was given back to us and she hasn't been heard from since then." He finished his story with a regretful sigh.

"I know that she's a survivor but what are her chances for survival in Gatou's hands?" Kakashi asked.

Tazuna thought for a moment, "Gatou makes it a habit to present the local 'hero' in front of the public and the person in question is usually beaten savagely and half-dead. So there's a good chance that she's still alive, she may be tortured, but alive."

Kakashi sighed in relief, "Naruto must not know about this until we all have a plan of attack, I'm serious, he'll go charging in and kill anyone in his path to find his mother. Even us, most likely." The genin agreed, Kurenai carried Naruto on her back for the rest of the way to Tazuna's house. Tazuna helped Kakashi walk.

(With the hunter-nin)

"You should try a less painful method for a death-like states, Haku." Zabuza complained when the senbon needles were taken out of his neck.

The hunter-nin removed her mask to reveal the face of a beautiful young girl. "I apologize, Master Zabuza but he was going to kill you and I just reacted."

"He wasn't going to kill me...yet, that redhead that Gatou captured for a fuck-toy was that kids mother. Good thing I couldn't tell him. It's also a good thing she's not weak or else that kid would've torn me apart in his rage." Zabuza clarified.

"She's stronger than anyone expected, anyone who tried to touch her had their fingers snapped clean off." Haku shivered at the thought.

(Two hours later, at Tazuna's home)

"Grandpa!" A young boy, everyone assumed was Inari, yelled before running up and hugging his grandfather around the waist. A young, dark-haired woman around Kurenai's age stood behind him with a gentle smile on her face.

"Welcome home, Dad." She said before giving her father a hug.

"Good to be home, Tsunami." Tazuna introduced the genin to his family, "...and the unconcious boy on Kurenai's back is Naruto Uzumaki, he's the son of the Red Death." He whispered the last part in her ear. She gasped at the revelation.

"Why are you whispering?" She asked lowly.

Kakashi explained the situation to her after Naruto was placed into a room to rest.

"The poor thing." Tsunami said sympathetically.

"Will he be alright? He looked exhausted." Inari asked.

"Don't sweat it, Kiddo. A few Vicodin and about two hours of a screwed up mental state and i'll be as good as new. You still got some of that sake, you old drunk?" Naruto asked as he walked into the kitchen.

Tazuna handed Naruto a jug of his sake, regardless of Tsunami's protests, and Naruto swallowed a couple pills with a few gulps. "That's so gonna haunt me in about five minutes, oh well, at least my headache's gonna be gone." He said after tossing the jug back to Tazuna.

"Now that Naruto's awake, we need to come up with a plan of attack for when Zabuza comes back for round two." Kakashi announced.

"THAT SON OF A BITCH IS ALIVE!!!?" Naruto screamed and immediately regretted it as his headache came back in full force. "Oh, that hurts!" He groaned.

"Anyway, Kurenai and I believe that the hunter-nin was Zabuza's accomplice. Hunter-nin are supposed to remove the head and incinerate the body on site. This one threw senbon needles, a weapon that's very hard to kill with, unless used by someone with pinpoint accuracy. He was most likely put into a death-like state. It'll take him at least a week to recover from it and during that time we'll train all of you to handle him. We'll start a schedule for our activities here, Naruto's clones will go with Tazuna in the morning and guard him while he works on the bridge, I will stay here and keep an eye on the family, I'll radio you if there's trouble. The rest of you will go with Kurenai for training."

"Times up, i'm out!" Naruto said before falling backwards in a drug-induced faint.

Most of the shinobi, sans Sasuke, sweatdropped at him while Hinata giggled. Kakashi, Kurenai, Tazuna, and his family cracked up at him.

"Where's his animals?" Tazuna realized that the fox and hawk weren't there. Everyone's eyes widened at the relization. They were answered when there was a scratching noise at the door. Hinata opened it and let Mugen in.

"What an adorable fox." Tsunami commented as she stroked Mugen's head.

Inari laughed as Mugen approached and playfully leapt in front of him.

"He's a perfectly housebroken and trained ninja animal, he'll take care of your family when we're training or guarding you," Kurenai explained to Tazuna.

"What happened to the hawk?"

Kakashi looked sheepish. "I sent him back with a letter to the Third to explain our new situation after Zabuza was no longer an issue, Naruto's probably gonna kill me for sending him away without consulting him first."

The animal was given some food and the humans ate a meal by Tsunami before heading to their rooms to sleep.

(The next day at a creek near Tazuna's home)

"Time to train, everyone." Kakashi announced as the genin stood in front of several large trees. Kurenai stood next to Kakashi, who had several bandages wrapped around his shin where Zabuza's water clone had struck him and stood using two crutches.

"Today we're going to teach you the tree-walking excercise for your chakra control." He was interrupted by Naruto saying that they'd known how to climb trees since they were little. "But this excercise will be done without your hands, observe!" Kakashi hobbled over to a tree and, to the genins surprise, walked up the side of it like he was walking on the ground. He stood, upside down, on the bottom of a branch while looking at them with his 'eye smile'.

"That is awe-some!" Naruto said.

Hinata raised her hand, "I a-already know th-this excercise, due to my clan's t-traditions." She stuttered.

Kurenai nodded, "That's why you'll be coming with me to find some medicinal herbs for Kakashi's wound. The rest of you will stay here and train." She ordered.

Kakashi dropped down to the forest floor after throwing three kunai knives in front of Sasuke, Sakura, and Kiba. Naruto grew his own. "The purpose of this excercise is to fine tune your control and limit the amount of chakra you put into a jutsu. You must channel your chakra to the soles of your feet and maintain it, use too much chakra: it'll send you flying. Use too little and you'll fall on your ass. Good luck. Some of you will take little effort due to your chakra stores being dismal, others will take a medial effort due to medium stores. Naruto will take an incredible effort due to his stores being larger than mine and Kurenai's put together." He said before leaving.

Let's go, Hinata." Kurenai said before walking away with her student.

"D-do you think it's a g-good idea to leave N-Naruto-kun behind with them?" Hinata worriedly asked.

"True, they don't like him very much, Sasuke's ego causes him to view Naruto as the deadlast and his progress makes him think he's getting special attention and Sakura's devotion to Sasuke is the reason that she shouldn't even be a kunoichi. Not only does she give shinobi like you and me a bad name, she'll probably fuck this entire mission up to be near him." Kurenai groaned at the thought.

_"Be careful, Naruto-kun! Don't start anything." _Hinata gave a quick prayer and a final glance at her crush, who was already trying to climb up his tree.

He was sent flying away after his first step. "WHOA!" He yelled before slamming against the ground.

Sasuk tried and his foot slipped after his second step. Sakura made it halfway before falling down.

_"This is gonna suck!" _They all thought.

(Five hours later)

And suck it did for most of them!

"OUCH! THAT FREAKIN' HURTS!!" Naruto complained and rubbed his tailbone after he fell for the fiftieth time.

_"I hate to admit it, but he's right. This excercise is more difficult than I thought."_ Sasuke groaned at the thought of Naruto being right. Sasuke had reached the top a bit earlier than Naruto. Naruto had reached the top earlier and was trying an experiment on doing it subconciously. Sakura had reached the top after her third try on the first day. She was currently guarding Tazuna while they trained.

"Shut up, dead last! You're screwing up my concentration." Sasuke snarled as he picked himself up.

Naruto would've told him where to put his concentration, but Inari walked into the clearing.

"Hey Naruto, my mom wants to know if you could you go with Hinata to the village to get some groceries."

"Sure thing, Kiddo!" Naruto said. He re-absorbed his kunai and left the clearing after flipping Sasuke off.

(Later, in the village)

"This is horrible!" Naruto murmured once he saw the state of the village. People wore rags for clothing and they were skinny as hell, obviously due to lack of food. The whole place stunk too, like the people hadn't bathed in ages.

"Th-this store might have something." Hinata pointed to a shop that looked like a grocery store. Once they entered they realized that it was minus the groceries.

"There's next-to-nothing. What has Gatou done to this once beautiful place?" Naruto muttered loud enough for Hinata to hear.

"EEP!!" Hinata squeaked, she turned around and reflexively struck the man behind her. Naruto turned around to see a red-faced Hinata and a guy on the ground in a daze.

"What the...?"

"He groped me." She stuttered.

He nodded in understanding, before they left the groceryless grocery store, Hinata "EEPed" again.

"ALRIGHT, LOOK HERE YOU STUPID...huh?" Naruto turned around to pummel the guy, but no one was there.

"Please? I need to buy medicine for Momma." A small voice asked. Naruto and Hinata looked down to see a small boy of about six with his arms cupped in front of him and looking at them pleadingly.

Hinata bent down to the boys level, "I don't have any money to spare but if you'd take us to your Momma, I could try to help her." Hinata said.

The boy smiled and wrapped his arms around her waist and softly sobbed, "Thanks, Pretty Girl. Momma's this way, come on!" He grasped Hinata's hand and pulled her along with him through various alleyways with Naruto following.

They never noticed the a brutish man wielding a sword following them.

After several turns, they finally stopped at a dumpster that had been cleaned of trash to seem as homely as it could be. "Momma! Momma! This Pretty Girl's gonna try to fix you!" The boy exclaimed at it. There was a shuffle inside and a brown-haired woman came out with a very pale and sickly complexion.

"Please, lie down and i'll get started." Hinata suggested. The woman complied with her request and laid down. Hinata's Byakugan activated and her hands glowed green with healing chakra.

"A medical-ninja! Quite a rare find around here. I'm gonna need you to come with me." A deep voice demanded. They were startled at the presence and Naruto turned to see a thug with an arrogant expression on his face and his hand on the hilt of a sword on his waist.

"Keep working, Hinata. Make sure she and the Kiddo stay safe." Naruto ordered. She nodded as he ushered the boy into the dumpster and ruffled his hair before facing the thug. "This woman's sick, she will need rest after Hinata's procedure, so I suggest that you leave before you piss me off." Naruto grew a spiked ball with a ring on it, a chain followed it and connected the end to the ring. Naruto dropped the spiked ball and spun it by the chain.

The mercenary smirked and began laughing. "It doesn't matter what happens to that woman, she'll end up like that red-haired bitch that Gatou captured." He goaded. He failed to see Naruto's eyes widen and charged forward. He was slammed in the gut by Naruto's spiked ball and smashed against the brick wall of the street before he could even draw his sword.

"We're taking this sack of shit back with us and i'm gonna have some questions for him that he'll answer, one way or another." Naruto vowed.

"That was awesome, you're a hero just like the pretty red-haired lady." The boy exclaimed as he jumped up and down behind Naruto. He wrapped his iron web around the thug and kneeled down in front of the excited child.

"Was this her?" Naruto held out his mother's picture to the boy, who nodded excitingly. "She's my mother, did Gatou take her?"

He sadly nodded, but his mother answered. "She tried to protect the village until the bridge was complete. but Gatou captured a child and forced her to trade her life for his." She whispered before falling asleep. Hinata stood and leaned down to the boy.

"Your mother needs to sleep for a while but she's going to be fine afterwards, I promise." She said. The child hugged her and then Naruto before he laid down next to his mother. Naruto pulled out a storage scroll and a thick blanket appeared from it, he threw it over their bodies and tucked them in. They left with the thug being dragged behind him.

"Hinata, go back to the house and tell everyone that this guy's not to be disturbed, i'll call everyone together at the place where we train once I'm ready to get some info from this guy." She nodded and he vanished with the thug in tow.

(Five days later)

"Kakashi-sensei, what's Naruto doing?" Sakura asked her teacher as she watched Naruto set the items he asked for on the table behind the upside down figure of the thug that was named Mickiro. Naruto called him Mick to piss him off.

"I think that he's gonna get some info from him." He said uncertainly.

"I don't care what you do to me, I aint saying nothing. If I do, Gatou'll kill me." Mick growled. He was silenced when Naruto grasped his hair with his real arm.

"If you don't tell me, I'll kill you now, Mick." Naruto retaliated, he flicked Mick on the nose with his iron finger, making him flinch.

Naruto reached over to the blowtorch, let the gas loose and used his zippo to ignite it. The flames burst from the torch and Naruto turned the knob to narrow the flames a bit until the fire was blue due to the intense heat. "2000 degrees, Mick, enough to turn steel into butter. It won't hurt at first, it's too hot, you see? The flame sears the nerve endings shut, killing them, you'll go into shock and all you feel is...cold." He moved to Mick's other side. "You'll smell burning meat and...then...it'll hurt." Naruto whispered sinisterly. He moved behind Mick and picked up the popsicle. He winked at his audience and motioned for silence when Kurenai looked like she was gonna crack up.

"I DON'T KNOW SHIT!!" Mick wailed.

Naruto set the flames on the steak and it sizzled loudly, after a moment, he placed the popsicle on Mick's back.

IT FREAKIN' WORKED.

Mick began screaming like he was in total agony everytime Naruto touched his back with the popsicle. After about three minutes, he settled on gasping in fear and the steak was charred black.

"You smell that, Mick? I'm burning off some of your fat!" Naruto smirked.

"AAAH! I'LL TALK! I'LL TALK! Gatou's gonna kill Zabuza after he kills all of you, he's planning on keeping the bridgebuilder's daughter as his own personal toy and selling the kid off on the black market." Mick wailed. Inari hugged his mom fearfully and she rubbed his head affectionately.

"You mentioned a red-headed woman, where is she!?" Naruto snarled. He emphasized his point by pressing the popsicle on his back again.

"She's in a dungeon in a secret underground lair, beneath the mansion. She was supposed to be a treat for the guys but she either snapped the finger off of anyone that came near her or broke their necks. Even now, she hasn't been touched by anyone." He was silenced by Naruto's fist in his face. He absorbed the webs that held him and began walking away.

_"Oh no..." _"Naruto stop!" Kakashi moved to step in his path but Naruto turned to him with tears streaming down his face.

"I have to go, my mother is being held prisoner and fighting for her life, don't try to stop me, sensei!" Naruto snarled. He tried to leap away but he suddenly dropped in a daze.

Kakashi looked at Kurenai to see her release her hands from the ram seal. "Hinata, seal off his chakra to his arms and legs. At least until morning."

Hinata kneeled next to her crush, _"I'm sorry, Naruto-kun, but you need to be patient and let us help you."_ She thought before pressing several point on his arms and legs.

Kakashi lifted Naruto on his shoulder and they all left for the house, most with a heavy heart.

(The next day)

Naruto awoke to the sound of glass breaking and Tsunami's scream of fright.

"I'm gonna murder those assholes."Naruto groaned. He swallowed some Vicodin and snuck downstairs.

"Don't you lay a finger on my son or i'll bite my tongue off and choke on my own bood." Tsunami swore. Two thugs were holding her hostage and Inari was being held in the grip of a large and bald, dark-skinned man with an incredibly large naginata. On his forehead was a headband with a scratched symbol of the hidden rock village.

"We were ordered to take you hostage, your son wasn't mentioned in the deal. So we can do whatever we want to him." The man grunted and tightened his grip on Inari's neck. A gloved hand grasped his and pried it open. Inari fell to the floor and ran behind Naruto's leg while rubbing his abused throat.

"You mind keeping it down? I've got a freakin' migraine." Naruto emphasized his point by punching the rogue-nin in the face, sending him flying through the wall and in the yard. He grew two of his shuriken and flung them into the thug's foreheads, killing them instantly. Tsunami gasped and she and Inari wrapped their arms around eachother.

"Get somewhere safe, I'll send Mugen back here in case there's more on their way. You did good, Kid, my mom really was a good influence on you." Naruto said before walking out the hole that he made using the rock-nin's body.

"You little shit!" The guy exclaimed at Naruto's approaching figure.

"Sticks and stones, Dickhead, or should I call you Oboromaru, The Stone Bear of the Hidden Rock Village? You made me your enemy by taking this nice woman as a hostage and trying to kill her son. I can guaran-damn-tee you that you will die before noon. And Gatou will join you in Hell before sundown." Naruto grew his katana, threw it to his left hand and grew another one to hold in his right.

"You think that a few blades will hurt me?" He egotistically laughed as his skin began changing. Naruto raised an eyebrow as the mans skin changed to stone. "This is the kekkei genkai of my former clan, I can change my molecular structure to match that of solid rock. I can't be cut by mere blades." He gloated.

Naruto looked indifferent, "I suppose that it's a good thing that my blades are solid iron. In other words, you're already dead, Rock-brain." He smirked when the nin leapt into the air and attempted to body-slam him. Naruto merely took a large step backwards and the Rock-nin slammed into the ground.

"You little...URK!" He was slenced when Naruto's blade pierced into his eye and through his brain.

"No matter how solid your body is, your inner organs, eyes, and mouth are just as frail as normal. This power would be best suited with my friends clan." Naruto grew a vial and a needle to retract some of the mans blood. He launched his web at the man's naginata and pulled out a scroll to seal it in. Once the sealing was complete he grabbed some wood and placed it on and under the mans body before using his zippo to ignite it. Once he was sure that the body would be incinerated, he leapt towards the bridge.

(With the rest of the team)

"What happened here?" Kakashi asked. The bridge was littered with the unconcious bodies of the workers. Mugen began growling.

"That would have been me. Where's the blonde kid, Naruto? I have some answers for him." Zabuza's voice echoed around them.

"He is not amongst them." The hunter-nin's voice echoed alongside her master's. Eight water doppelgangers appeared around the leaf-nin and bridgebuilder.

"If you're referring to his mother, he already 'extracted' the answers from one of Gatou's thugs, yesterday. I'm actually surprised that you remembered." Kakashi explained. The fog around them lifted and the two rogue-nins were visible.

"I may be a rogue-nin but i'm still a shinobi with my own code of honor. One of them is to keep my end of a deal, and the deal was that if he beat me, i'd tell him all about the redhead. How, exactly, did he get the info?" He asked.

Kakashi smirked proudly beneath his mask. "If you survive this battle, i'll have him write his torture methods down for you." Kakashi pulled out a kunai knife as did Kurenai, the genin surrounded Tazuna. Zabuza noticed that Sasuke was shaking.

"Hmph! The Uchiha seems to be quaking in fear, you may want to have that Naruto kid come and replace him." Zabuza insulted.

"I'm shaking...from anticipation." Sasuke raised his head to show that his eyes held no fear.

"Go for it, Sasuke." Kakashi smirked. Sasuke suddenly vanished from view and the water-clones split in half from various angles and burst like water balloons. Sasuke reappeared with his kunai in each hand and a victorious smirk on his face.

"Interesting, he's not a pathetic as I thought. You might have a rival in speed, Haku." Zabuza suggested.

"Maybe, maybe not."

"Deal with him."

"Yes, sir!" Haku said before vanishing.

Sasuke vanished as well and the two reappeared after a few dozen clangs of metal with Sasuke holding his kunai knife against Haku's senbon needle.

"I don't want to have to kill you, but...you probably won't leave quietly, will you?..."

"Don't be stupid..." Sasuke interrupted.

"Just as I thought...however, you won't be able to match my speed for long...and i've laid the groundwork for two attacks." Haku said.

"Two attacks...?"

"Firstly, there's th water splashed all around us, secondly, I've trapped one of your hands with parrying this move..." She brought her free hand up to her face and made a half ram seal, "...which leaves you with only one hand free to defend yourself from my next attacks!" Her hand was a flurry of movement that Sasuke recognized as handseals.

_"What!? With one hand...?" _Sasuke thought.

_"One-handed seals!? I've never seen anything like it!" _Kakashi thought.

"Secret Jutsu: A thousand needles of death!" Haku stomped her foot on the ground and the water around them hovered into the air and formed into a thousand needles that ominously floated around them.

"SASUKE!!" Sakura screamed to her crush.

Sasuke closed his eyes and held his free hand up to his face in a half ram seal. _"Come on! Gotta remember the training! Summon all of the chakra energy you can...and focus it in my feet_

Sasuke zoomed into the air only a split-second before the needles impacted with the ground where he once stood. Haku had managed to do several flips to avoid the ice needles and the shuriken that Sasuke threw.

Haku squatted once she got a quick break. "You're not that fast." She turned around to see Sasuke behind her and his irises were red with a tomoe in the iris of his left eye and two in his right. "Now you're the one who has to worry about defending yourself from my attacks." Sasuke tried to stab Haku with his kunai but was thwarted by her forearm. He flicked his wrist to send the kunai to her face, which she ducked to avoid, only to get slammed by Sasuke's foot and be sent flying to Zabuza's feet. "You're fast, i'm faster." Sasuke boasted.

Kakashi chuckled, "You had that coming for underestimating our genin. He may not look like much...but Sasuke is the top-rated rookie from the Hidden Leaf Village. Sakura here is our sharpest mind, while little Hinata is our top rookie medic and heiress to the prestigious Hyuga clan and last but not least let's not forget our most powerful new kekkei genkai wielder and village Jinchuriki, Naruto Uzumaki." Kurenai gasped and he realized that he let it slip.

Zabuza's eyes widened at the revelation before he snickered in excitement. _"A jinchuriki of the Hidden Leaf. There was only one demon that attacked it and if that boy is its container...then..."_ "Deal with the Uchiha brat, Haku, Naruto should be here soon to take his place."

"What a pity." Haku said. He rushed his hands through several seals and stopped on one that Sasuke hadn't seen before. The air got colder and the water shifted around them until it rose into the air to form a dome of several dozen mirrors. "Secret Jutsu: Crystal Ice Mirrors!" Haku shouted. She seemed to melt into one of them and her image appeared on every one of them.

_"What does she plan to do with these mirrors?" _Sasuke thought.

"Let me show you some real speed!" Haku said and held her senbon at the ready. Sasuke suddenly screamed as his clothes were shredded and his body was cut, but they were shallow.

"Sasuke...!!" Kakashi yelled and tried to jump in to help his student but was held back by Kurenai.

"He can handle himself." She stated. Sakura suddenly bound past her and Hinata screamed for her to stop.

"Sasuke!!" She yelled and threw a kunai to him. It was caught by Haku before it could reach Sasuke. _"Dammit, he caught it!!"_

A large object flew through the air and struck Haku's mask. He fell to the ground as the object impaled it and everyone saw that it was a glaive.

"I'm gonna kick all of your asses for leaving me at the damn house." Naruto's voice shouted from the end of the bridge. Mugen barked happily and sprinted to his master's feet. Naruto kneeled and stroked Mugen's head. "Sorry buddy, but I need you to go back and take care of Tsunami and Inari. Some of Gatou's thugs tried to kidnap her and they might try again." Mugen yipped and bound off to the woods to the house. Naruto stood and glared at Haku and Zabuza. "Here I am to save the day. You know how the story goes, things look bleak till the hero arrives to rain justice down upon the evil-doers."

"Naruto!" Sakura happily shouted.

_"Naruto's here to save us." _Hinata thought relieved.

"We needed an ambush, and he goes and paints a bullseye on his head." Kakashi grumbled loud enough for Kurenai to hear. She chuckled.

"I was wondering when you'd show up, brat." Zabuza said. He grabbed the hilt of his Guillotine sword.

"Your boss ordered Tsunami to be taken hostage. Were you aware that he had hired "The Stone Bear of the Hidden Rock" to kidnap her? He almost killed her son as well." Naruto said and recalled his glaive. They were about to charge but Haku appeared between them.

"What are you doing, Haku?" Zabuza asked.

"Please let me have this boy, Master. I have to tell him something." Haku asked.

Zabuza chuckled sinisterly. "You just want to keep my hands off of him, eh? How naive." Zabuza turned back to face the two jonin.

Sasuke groaned as he tried to sit up. _"That guy...naive? Yeah right! I look like i'm being sliced to ribbons by thousands of needles but the cuts are shallow, he's killing me inch by inch, saving the vital parts and the deathblow for later. But I can't figure out the technique he's using! It might be clones that are hiding in the mirrors and striking simultaneously. I don't even see him move. He strikes before I can see his weapon's trajectory! It can't be just the clone jutsu...the ice irrors must be a part of this too but I can't figure out their significance. I guess my only chance is to concentrate on the battle here and trust Naruto to set me free from the outside..."_

"Hey, Duck-ass! I'm here to take over!" Naruto exclaimed. Sasuke felt something grab the back of his shirt and the next thing he knew was flying through the air and out of the dome of mirrors.

"Now that he's out of the way, what is it you need to tell me that's so damn important?" Naruto asked.

"I am aquainted with the woman who you call 'mother,' she's a very kind person. I told her of a boy with blonde hair and whiskers searching for her and she didn't believe me. She tearfully insisted that you had died on your day of birth."

Naruto lowered his head solemnly. "She was lied to after I underwent a certain process, told I was killed and she left without looking back."

"Are you referring to the sealing of the Nine-tailed fox?" Haku asked as she readied her senbon.

Naruto's eyes widened in fear. "How did you know about that!?"

"Your sensei let it slip that you're a jinchuriki, and the only demon to attack your village was the fox. We figured the rest out ourselves. You must have had a childhood similar to mine. I was hated by my village due to this bloodline ability that I posess, I was considered an abomination because of the Mizukage's racial hatred of all kekkei genkai's." Haku explained.

"Well, it doesn't bother me anymore and it's not really my concern. My only interest is rescuing my mother and putting Gatou's head on a pike to show the entire village that they're free from his reign." Naruto held his glaive in front of him and prepared for battle.

"Very well." Haku's image appeared on every mirror and she struck. Naruto suffered the same injuries as his duckheaded teammate but he persevered more.

_"Think! He's gotta have a weakness, maybe I should try the barrier and send the senbon back at him. No, he'd just grab them in midair and send them back at me. HUK!!" _He grasped his arm that had its transparent-greenish mist emenating from it again to see that his entire bicep was fully metallic and two more glowing cracks had appeared on it. _"Energysurge! Seems like it'll come in handy."_ He used his zippo to set his glaive alight and hurled it at a mirror with all of his might. The blades of the glaive pierced the ground in front of a mirror and Naruto held his metal hand in front of his face, "I'm on FIRE!! He yelled as he clenched his fingers. The glaive seemed to explode and give off a shockwave of the transparent mist and the flames. "Oh, I love that!" He muttered loudly. He looked at his arm to see one of the glowing cracks was blackened. _"Ten seconds to recharge each round, three rounds in total." _He thought.

"Interesting! Your arm has several unique tendencies that you aren't even aware of." Haku's voice echoed. Naruto was stunned to see that the mirror wasn't even scratched. "Your flames are powerful, make no mistake about that, but my ice is more powerful." Haku threw several senbon at Naruto who used his arm to block them.

_"Ah hell, this is gonna suck. Maybe I shouldn't have thrown Duck-ass out there, I may need what little help he could have given."_ He thought as he recalled his glaive.

(With Hinata)

The jonin were fighting Zabuza with incredible difficulty while she used her Byakugan to observe Naruto's battle with the ninja, Haku. Naruto suddenly droppd to his knees and began panting. "Naruto-kun's in trouble!" She blurted out.

"Of course he's in trouble, Sasuke-kun was having trouble with him, what did he think he could do?" Sakura growled as she tended to Sasuke's wounds. Hinata rolled her eyes at her fellow Kunoichi's attitude.

"Hinata, get over there and try to help Naruto." Kurenai ordered. Hinata made sure that Sakura had healed Sasuke enough to take her place before rushing past the jonin to her crush.

Naruto coughed as he yanked the senbon needles from his sides and stomach. _"This isn't good! She keeps hitting my pressure points and i'm losing feeling in my joints." _Naruto thought as he tried but failed to stand.

"Do you have something precious to protect?" Haku asked.

Naruto pondered the question for a moment to stall for time that he could use to regain feeling in his limbs. "I'm not sure, I have friends that are precious to me, considering that I had a rough childhood. I also have a dream, my dream is to be the greatest Hokage that has ever lived." He grunted out.

"That is a noble dream, I too have a dream; to see Master Zabuza's dreams come true, even if it means killing m own heart to insure that it comes to fruition." She, once again, threw several dozen senbon at Naruto who was too numb to dodge. Naruto closed his eyes and held his arm in front of his face. He heard the sound of metal piering flesh but no pain. He moved his hand to see Hinata with all the senbon pierced through her body and her neck.

"No!!" He whispered. She fell backwards and he caught her. He placed her head on his lap and pulled the needles from her neck. "Hinata! Why would you do that? Why would you try to throw your life away for mine?"

"N-Naruto-k...kun, Y-you were my greatest reason to live. I couldn't imagine a life without you in it." She whispered before releasing a final sigh.

"She died a shinobi's death. I suppose this is the first time that someone close to you has died?" Haku asked. He walked to one of his mirrors and merged with it. "It is the life we live as shinobi."

"Shut up." Naruto whispered . Haku watched as steam began to rise around him and it suddenly gave way to red chakra. "You took her away from me. She was one of the greatest things in my life and you took her from me!" Haku looked at the boy that crouched over his fallen friend.

_"What is this? Chakra can't be seen, yet it's clearly visible. The bloodlust and rage are overwhelming. Who, What is this boy?"_ Haku thought. Naruto head shot and glared right at her. Haku gasped in shock at the sight of Naruto's animalistic red eyes. His whisker marks were more defined and his canines were longer as were his fingernails on his left hand while the tips of his fingers on his right hand narrowed to razor sharp tips. But it would be his next words that she would never forget.

"**I'M GOING TO RIP YOU APART AND THROW YOUR REMAINS INTO THE WIND!!!**" Naruto roared. The chakra gathered together above him and formed a demonic fox head. It howled to the sky before merging with Naruto.

(With the Jonin)

Kakashi and Kurenai stiffened at the same time due to the ominous feeling that overcame them.

_"This power, is it Zabuza's? No...it's too evil...too foul...and it's familiar...but it can't be!" _Kakashi thought fearfully.

_"Has the seal broken? No...it's been loosened...and a small glimmer of the Nine-tailed monster's chakra has bled through the seal." _Kurenai thought.

_"This foul power...could it be Kakashi or Kurenai? No...it's too powerful, even for both of them. Wait! This has a demonic feeling to it...it's that Naruto kid!" _Zabuza thought.

Kakashi grabbed a small scroll from his vest pocket and unrolled it. He cut his finger on the edge of it and smeared the blood along the middle of the paper. "Zabuza, we're all a bunch of busy people, we've all got a lot on our plates. You feel that power just as much as we do. So what do you say we quit screwing around and finish this so I can examine Naruto's seal?" He shouted to the mist. The scroll was on his ring fingers as his hand was in the tiger seal.

"Interesting, Show me what you can do, Kakashi Hatake!"

(With Naruto and Haku)

**"GRRRAAAAAARRRR!!" **Naruto roared. He slouched over to place his hands on the ground.

_"He's attacking!!!" _Haku thought. and true to his prediction, Naruto lunged forward on all fours like a savage beast on the hunt.

"He's emanating such a bloodthirsty feeling! He's changed completely from the boy of just minutes ago!" Haku screamed as she threw several senbons at her attacker.

**"RAAAR!!" **Naruto roared. The incoming senbons bounced off an invisible wall of chakra. Haku managed to disappear from the mirror she occupied right before Naruto punched it. To her surprise, the mirror shattered like it was glass.

_"He...he deflected them without even touching them?! And he broke my mirror so easily!" _Haku appeared in the mirror above the fox boy and dove out to stab him with a handful of senbons. Naruto slapped his left hand into the ground and flipped himself out of the way at incredible speeds. _"I've got to get to the next mirror!"_

She moved to another mirror but her wrist was grasped in a vice-like grip that could have crusher her bones into powder and yanked in front of Naruto's vengeful gaze.

**"AAAUUURGH!!" **Naruto howled as the crimson chakra appeared around him. It began to recede into Naruto's iron hand, which he had clenched into a fist. He threw his fist into Haku's face with all of his might and the impact sent her through one of her mirrors and she landed right behind Zabuza with her mask shattered.

"Haku!" He yelled. He was halted by an earsplitting roar from a demonized Naruto.

Naruto appeared in front of Zabuza and backhanded him to the edge of the bridge, several loud cracks resounded through the air signifying that a few ribs and other bones were broken. He gazed at Haku's unconsious figure and stood there, staring at him. The aua of the demon fox began dissipating until it was all but gone, his animalistic traits were still present, indicating that a bit of his rage was still present.

**"I want to wait for your awakening before I kill you." **He growled.

"Naruto, Hinata's alive! She was placed into a death-like state like Zabuza was." Kurenai shouted. She had, apparently, ran over to her fallen student when the mist cleared and Zabuza was incapacitated.

**"Oh thank God!"** He whispered. He was about to change back but suddenly there was a sound of a person clapping.

"Not bad, you've actually saved me the trouble of having to pay him." A gruff voice said.

They all turned to see a short, fat man standing in front of forty or fifty bandits and thugs.

**"I'll go ahead and assume that you're that tub-a-lard-looking motherfucker, Gatou."** Naruto said and grew his katana and threw it to his left hand.

Gatou grunted at the insult but answered, "You assume correct, My original idea was to have Zabuza and his girl fight you Leaf-nin and die in the process, but since you spared him and that tasty bitch he has i'll just let one of my boys here kill him and the girl can be my personal little toy. You would've been weakened by the battle and they would have dealt with you but since you probably might take out half of them and save me the trouble of paying them why don't you just give me the bridgebuilder and be on your way, after all, what's the matter with killing one man?"

**"You'll never stop at one..."** Naruto grew his second katana, **"...I'll take you all on!" **He roared and charged at the mass of thugs.

"AAH, Kill him! Kill him!" Gatou screamed. The thugs ran at Naruto with their weapons drawn.

Before he could slice down the first one, a zanbatou cleaved him down. "Since my employer has betrayed me, I have no reason to go after the bridgebuilder nor do I need to battle any of you." Zabuza explaned. "I'll help you kill them, but Gatou's mine if I can help it."

Naruto nodded and they both began cleaving and slicing their way through all of the thugs.

(With Hinata)

_"Where...am I?" _She slowly opened her eyes to a bright light and a blurry figure above her. Her vision cleared and the person above her turned out to be Kurenai.

"Thank goodness you've awakened." She whispered in relief.

"Where's N...Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked.

Kurenai looked fearful for a moment before looking to her left. Hinata sat up with her teachers help and her eyes widened at the sight before her. Her beloved was fighting alongside their enemy against an army of thugs. Zabuza was apparently injured because he wasn't faring very well. He had multiple weapons sticking out of his body and a few were in vital areas. The weapons had a purple and green substance dripping off the blades, They were poisoned.

"What's happened to Naruto-kun?" She asked once she noticed the changes.

"I'm sorry, Hinata but I'm not at liberty to say. Let's just say that he's awakened the demon within his soul." Kurenai said.

(With Naruto and Zabuza)

The thugs were all dead and Naruto was panting in exhaustion while Zabuza fell on his face. **"Hey, you alright? **Naruto asked.

"Sorry, Kid! Looks like you'll have to take him down for me. My last wish is that you take Haku with you to the Leaf Village, tell her I said to start a new life with you." Zabuza said before he breathed his last breath. Naruto bowed in respect to a fallen warrior.

"H-hey! Maybe we could make a deal! I'll pay you as much as you want, just don't kill me." He pathetically screamed.

Naruto snarled. **"I was saving this jutsu for later, but I guess you'll be a decent sacrifice for him. And it'll be a suitable punishment for you."**_**"Snake, Boar, Sheep, Rabbit, Dog, Rat, Bird, Horse, Snake!"**_** "Sealing Jutsu: Reaper Death Seal!!"** Naruto screamed. He suddenly felt another presense behind him and turned to see the reaper of death hovering ominously behind him. _**"The Reaper that can only be seen by the caster of the jutsu and the one who my father summoned to seal the fox within me. How ironic! I believe I can summon him without serious consequence due to me already bearing his seal." **_**"Here's the deal; I will summon you when I want to seal away a truly dark soul and you can have it in the place of my own soul. What do you say?" **The Reaper closed his eyes for a moment in contemplation. It opened its eyes and nodded with a sinister smile on its face.

"Earth Style: Fang Pursuit Jutsu!" Kakashi yelled and slammed the scroll from earlier into the ground. After a few moments of the ground shaking, Eight different dogs with clothing and Leaf headbands burst from the ground around Gatou and they all latched onto him. "After this, you're gonna tell me where you learned that jutsu." Kakashi ordered.

Naruto nodded and approached Gatou. The Reaper wrapped the beads in its left hand around its forearm and intricate black seals appeared on it. He reached his arm through Naruto's lower back, where his seal was located and its hand went through Naruto's stomach and into Gatou's. The hand receded and in its grip was a humanoid chakra figure. Once the figure left Gatou's body, it slumped over, lifeless while the chakra figure was pulled through Naruto and into the Death God's mouth. Once it was fully eaten the Reaper nodded at Naruto's back and faded away. Naruto fell down on one knee as A bit of Gatou's memory filled his mind. _**"So that's where his hideout is, Dumb-fuckin me!" **_He stood and began jumping through the woods despite his teacher's orders to stop.

(At a mansion near the coast)

**"This will end when my mother is returned to me!"** Naruto muttered to himself as he kicked open the front door of the mansion. He made his way through several rooms and hallways. He happened upon several rooms with different women chained to the beds, and, to his disgust, small children as well. He released them and created several clones to guide them all out of there. He found an entryway to the basement and smashed his fist through the feeble lock. He made his way past the booby traps and found the room he was looking for. He kicked the door open and almost broke down then and there. Sitting down with her head down and her arms cuffed to the wall with the cuffs having special anti-chakra seals on them was a woman with fiery red hair, she was garbed in ragged civillian clothing, a simple pair of slightly torn jeans and a red t-shirt. The woman groaned and raised her head to gaze upon him with near-lifeless forest green eyes. Naruto approached her and barely managed to catch her foot before it impacted with his face. **"Mama, it's me, It's Naruto! Your son!" **He pleaded. Her eyes softened and she allowed him to approach her. He pried open the cuffs and caught her before she could hit the ground.

"N...Naruto-kun?" She questioned. He tearfully smiled and nodded his head. His demonic traits diminished, except for his right hand, which was still razor sharp. She looked into his ocean blue eyes and began to cry, "Oh, my baby!" She yelled and wrapped her arms around his neck. She cried on his shoulder for what felt like an eternity and he did the same for her. She cried herself to sleep and Naruto placed her on his back with the help of a shadow clone and he got the fuck out of there. He made sure that the civillians were safe before jumping away to Tazuna's home.

(Next Day)

Kushina grudgingly awoke due to the sunlight peering through the window to see Tsunami's smiling face looking down on her. Before she could say anything Tsunami gave her a shushing gesture and pointed next to her. Kushina looked at what her friend was pointing to and nearly began crying again, Naruto was asleep and using her shoulder as a pillow. His clawed iron hand held her left and she thought his soft snoring was adorable. "How long have I been out?" She whispered.

"Only a day. He hasn't left your side since he brought you here. Kurenai-san had to use genjutsu to put him to sleep and even then he refused to leave your side." She giggled softly. Kushina smiled as Tsunami left to leave her alone with her long-thought-dead son.

"I swear that I'll murder the ANBU who told me you were dead, sweetheart." She vowed as she wrapped her arm around Naruto. He smiled softly in his sleep.

(Three days later)

Naruto awoke from his peaceful slumber and took his morning Vicodin before heading down to the kitchen.

"Morning Everyone! Morning Mama!" He said before giving his mother a hug. The last few days had been eventful to say the least. He had quickly bonded with his mother and told her all about his life. Her killing intent went through the roof when he summed up his treatment by the villagers and she was happy to hear that he's made so many friends. Mugen absolutely loved her and he had no doubts about Jin liking her. He told her about his virus and its qualities, she wasn't too happy to hear that he had to take Vicodin but after a TV related incident a few hours later, she had no complaints after her laughing fit ended. His teammates got on her nerves, especially Sasuke since her and his father, Fugaku hadn't ever seen eye-to-eye. Hinata was a different story, They got along so well you'd think that she was Hinata's mother as well as Naruto's. She even whispered that if Hinata ever got the courage to admit it, she approved of them dating(Not that he knows that). Tsunami was kind enough to give her some clothes to wear on the trip back home. Haku had agreed to go with them as per her former master's wish. Naruto gave her Zabuza's zanbatou to signify that she carried his legacy now.

"Alright everyone! I have a big announcment! The bridge is nearly complete thanks to Naruto's shadow clones..." Naruto stood and gave a mock bow like he was on a stage. "...and with the money Naruto confiscated from Gatou's vault I was able to hire some security to watch me until its completion. So you all should be heading back home to your families and with your families." He aimed the last part at The Uzumakis.

(Next Day)

"It's been fun, Little Guy, but it's time for us to head back home. You do me a favor and take good care of your family." Naruto said to a tearful Inari. They all turned and left the village using the bridge that was nearly complete.

"You know, Dad, You havent officially dedicated the bridge." Tsunami informed her father.

He smiled. "We'll call it the Great Naruto Bridge! That name will insure that it will stand forever...Our bridge will become super-famous the world over as a symbol of triumph and endurance! That's what I hope...and hopefully, that's how it'll be."

At the end of the bridge, Kushina had wrapped her arm around Naruto's shoulder and pulled him closer to her. Mugen licked her fingers from his bed, Naruto's hood.

That's chapter two, everyone! I'm sorry but I was out all day on Christmas so I couldn't work on this thing and post it when I planned to.

I'll try to get the next one up ASAP. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and will all have A Happy New Year.

Please Review!!


	3. Chapter 3

Alright, Everyone! Here is Chapter three of Iron Guardian. This is the Chunin exam arc and as you may have noticed before, I have a tendency to throw the entire arc into one chapter. I just can't help it. I hope you enjoy!

Chapter Three: The return home and The Chunin Exam

The Konoha group was only a mile away from the Leaf village when a loud hawk screech sounded above them. They all looked up to see Jin dive-bombing towards them.

"Jin! I missed you so much." Naruto gushed when he caught his friend and hugged him. "Mama, this is Jin! Jin, this is my Mama!" Naruto held out his hawk so he could see his master's mother.

"He's so pretty!" She said as she stroked his back. After introductions were complete, Jin perched himself on Naruto's shoulder and they continued the journey home. Once they made it past the gates, Hinata had to bid them goodbye to inform her father of her return and to rest for she was still injured from Haku's attack. After her goodbyes and a meaningful eyelock with Naruto, she was on her way.

They made their way to the Hokage tower and Kushina had been given a few side glances. Not all of them were very pleasant but her son had given them a feral look to divert their attention elsewhere. They made it to the office and after submitting their mission reports, Kakashi dismissed Sakura and Sasuke while ordering Naruto to stay behind on the pretence that he should personally inform the Hokage of his evolved 'bloodline limit' and his mother's return. Sasuke, who had activated his Sharingan was also about to stay but was, again, dismissed by Kakashi, who stated that the Sharingan was a well documented and thus really didn't need special attention. It went without saying that Sasuke was somewhat annoyed at Naruto hogging the spotlight, grumbling to himself, he stalked out towards the Uchiha mansion.

The secretary was feeling quite co-operative, especially after Naruto flashed her a grin and flexed his iron claws, when Kakashi requested a private meeting with the Hokage. After only a few minutes of waiting they were shown in the Hokage's office.

"Hey, Old man! Look who I found!" Naruto shouted. He moved out of the way to show the Hokage who he'd brought home.

"Hiya, Gramps!" She yelled just as loudly as her son.

The, now properly greeted, old man pinched himself under his robes. He had to be dreaming, no way had he just seen Naruto Uzumaki, Kurenai Yuhi, and Kakashi Hatake walk into his office with a familiar redheaded woman that had promptly screamed her greetings to him. That simply didn't, couldn't happen. He pinched himself again and finally resigned himself to the realization that it really had happened. Rubbing his temples, the old man sat down with an audible sigh and spoke in his intercom ordering that he was not to be disturbed… this was going to be a long day.

After series of long winded explanations about a corrupt businessman and a hell of a lot of torture methods for Ibiki, they finally got to the issue of Naruto's inheritance. Explaining just exactly why Naruto's lineage was kept a secret was surprisingly easy, the reasons being mostly what Kakashi had expected them to be. Naruto's father had made plenty of enemies, especially during the third shinobi war when he had single handedly eliminated a great number of enemy ninjas, and the families of those enemies might seek revenge on the 'Yellow Flash's incarnation'. There was also the fact that other ninja countries, while being 'allied' to Konoha, were not above trying to gain power by any means necessary. If they were to learn that Yondaime, who was considered to have been a genius, had a son who, incidentally, also held the Kyuubi sealed within him, along with incredible mastery of a, once thought, beyond uncontrollable virus… the temptation for gaining such a powerful 'tool' could be beyond overwhelming.

Naruto, flinching visibly at the word tool as it reminded him of Zabuza and how he had regarded Haku, almost missed the question that was directed to him. "So Naruto, now that you know, do you think you could keep this as a secret until such time that you are ready to assume your father's name?"

"Why would he need to do that? He's got me to take care of him now. As his mother and the wife of Minato Namikaze, I am entitled to a seat among the shinobi council and I will represent Naruto's best interests. I also want to find the ANBU who told me that Naruto was killed after the sealing." Kushina interrupted.

"Are you sure that you're not rusty after all these years of traveling around?" Hiruzen asked, even though he knew that her kenjutsu skills could have only improved during her wanderings.

"I don't care what I have to do or who I have to kill to protect my son. I just got him back and i'm not going to lose him now. We're going to move to my husbands estate after we grab Naruto-kun's things." She wrapped her arm around her son's shoulders.

"Speaking of council, can you call a meeting, heirs and heiresses included? I have something to give to the Akimichi clan that will empower our military might exponentially. Don't ask what it is, cause it's a surprise." Naruto grinned at the curious look the Hokage was giving him.

(One hour later)

"Kushina, it's good to see you again." Hiashi said as he hugged his old friend.

"Hello Hiashi-kun, How's Kohina?" She cheerily asked.

Hiashi's smile dropped, "She passed on after the birth of our second daughter, Hanabi." He motioned to the seven-year old girl at his side.

"Oh, that's too bad. At least your second little girl is fine. Aren't you cute!" She gushed to the blushing Hanabi. They said their goodbyes and the Hyuga entered the council chamber.

"Sorry Momma, but can you wait for a minute before walking in?" Naruto asked. She nodded as he walked through the doors and in front of the shinobi and civillian council. The heirs and heiresses stood behind their seated parents.

"Hello, Naruto! I wish to apologize for not being able to participate in the recent mission." Shino said.

"Don't worry about it, Shino. Ask Hinata about it later, it's a hell of a story." Naruto replied. They were silenced by the Third's voice.

"I call this council meeting to order!" His voice boomed through the small room.

"This is such a drag!" Shikamaru muttered.

"Is this meeting for the execution of the demon brat?" A random civillian hopefully asked. Mugen growled at the man and Jin shrieked, but Naruto held them back.

"Actually, it's regarding this." He grew a vial of a red substance that looked like blood, "This is the blood of the B-class rogue-nin of the Hidden Rock Village, Oboromaru. To prove my claim, I have this." He pulled a small scroll out of his pocket and unsealed the rogue-nin's giant naginata. He slid it over to Choji and motioned for him to hold on to it. "I want the village's R&D Division guys to patent this blood and I will hand it over to the Akimichi clan." He announced. The councillers began to murmer amongst themselves. The civillians immediately objected his plan, thinking that it was poisoned blood or some other rediculous notion. The shinobi portion pondered this for a moment, especially Choza and Choji Akimichi. They raised their hands to indicate silence for a moment.

"You are simply giving me and my clan this incredible power? Why?" Choza asked.

Naruto shrugged. "I don't really know myself. I fought this guy and he was more arrogant than Sasuke "Duck-ass" Uchiha, which is a feat that I didn't think possible. I knew that this ability of his was powerful and your clan would be the only one to bring out its true potential."

"Very well, we shall except your gift, and in return...?" Choza asked. The civillian council tried to make him object but the Thirds killing intent shut them up.

"I'm moving over to my father's clan estate with my mother and we will be needing some groceries, think you can spare some meat, spices, and...grrrr...vegetables?" He growled out vegetables like it left a nasty taste in his mouth. It was no secret that he hated his veggies.

"Your mom?" Ino questioned. The doors opened to reveal Kushina with a katana that her son had grown sheathed at her left hip. She walked up to her son and placed her hands on his shoulders.

"I have returned home to be with my son." She announced. Unknown to all that were present, Danzo's visible eye narrowed.

"Lady Kushina!" Tsume Inuzuka bowed in respect, as did Hana and most of the others present.

"Do not bow to me. I'm just a common kunoichi and a mother to to a wonderful child. Though I have to know if he pulled any pranks on any of you jackasses." She said to the civillian council. They bristled at the insult and all the memories of what Naruto's pranks resulted in.

"How could you be the mother of a demon child? And who was the father?" One of the civillians blurted out. Kushina growled and grasped the hilt of her temporary katana. She pulled it out of the sheath with incredible speed, causing an invisible blade of wind to pass through the man, and she re-sheathed her blade just as quickly. The councilman's head slid off of his shoulders causing the rest of the civillians to panic until Kushina's killing intent silenced them.

"If any of you refer to my son like that again, you will suffer the same fate as him. Hiruzen, how could you let them obtain this much political influence? My husband made sure to take care of that problem once he rose to power." She asked the Third.

_"Her husband?"_ The younger attenders thought.

He sighed. "Before I could take up the seat of Hokage again they made a quick move to reclaim their power and I could do nothing to take it away from them."

"You're wrong there! You could have done something, but your damn peaceloving nature makes you easy to manipulate." She spat.

"Before this turns into an all-out-political-battle-royale, I would like to bring Haku into the equation." Naruto shouted.

Kushina looked sheepish for a moment and took a seat beside Hiashi.

"Anyway, During my team's mission in the Wave Village alongside Kurenai Yuhi and Hinata Hyuga, we encountered the Demon of the Hidden Mist, Zabuza Momochi. You can read about him in the mission report that Kakashi-sensei and Kurenai-sensei will be writing up. Zabuza had an accomplice, Her name is Haku. She wields a Kekkei Genkai that is in the same category as the Lord First. She is able to combine her water and wind nature chakras to create ice chakra and use Ice style ninjutsu with incredible skill. She is also a talented medical ninja and I know that we can't afford to take a medic-nin deduction lightly. I request that you establish her a rank and make her a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf. I also know that she's a hell of a shot with those damn senbon needles." He announced. He stood behind his smirking mother as they all contemplated.

"He has a point! A kekkei genkai and talents as a medic-nin are not to be taken lightly, especially in these times. Can you bring this girl forward so we can measure her talents as a medic-nin?" Shibi Aburame requested.

"I'd like to see this, myself. So I second this motion." Shikaku said, also curious.

Naruto looked to the third for confirmation. He nodded and Naruto took that as his cue.

"Go get her, you two." He ordered. Mugen and Jin barked and chirped respectively before Mugen jumped into the air and Jin flew under him to fly them both out to fetch Haku. She walked through the doors after ten minutes with Mugen in her arms and Jin on her shoulder.

"You s-summoned me, Council members?" She respectfully asked and mentally cursed herself for stuttering. The animals retook their respective places on their master's person.

"We did, Haku-san. Please come forward. We have a few questions for you." Inoichi said gently. "Naruto tells us that you possess the abilities of Ice style ninjutsu as well as talents at medical jutsu. Is this true?"

She nodded.

"We can evaluate her skills later if you wish, Lord Hokage." Shikaku suggested.

"I believe that I can take Naruto and Kushina's word for it but I will grant you the rank you deserve once your skills are evaluated."

"Hiruzen, I believe that it would be more benificial for the village if she were handed over to my custody." Danzo said.

"We agree with this motion." Koharu and Homura said simultaneously.

"Benificial for the village, or for you?" Kushina interjected, glaring at Danzo.

"Motion denied. She will be under my jurisdiction. Now, the only matter is your housing." Hiruzen muttered thoughtfully.

"She'll be staying with me and Naruto in the Namikaze estate." Kushina announced. Haku gasped quietly and the Uzumakis gave her their matching foxy grins.

"Now that that's settled, I have one more matter to bring up, I was informed by Kakashi that you were able to use the Reaper Death Seal without dying. How is this possible?" Hiruzen asked. The adults stared at Naruto and told their children to leave, sans Hana and Haku.

Choji held the naginata to Naruto but he told him to keep it and Choji did so after thanking Naruto.

After the younger generation left, he began his explaination. "The reason that I can perform this master sealing jutsu is because I already bear the Reaper's mark. I was able to make a different pact with the Reaper so long as I gave him a soul that was corrupted beyond redemption, I would be able to summon him and seal the aforementioned soul in his stomach without me dying. As for how I learned the jutsu, I kinda lied when I said that I only learned one jutsu from the scroll of sealing during the Mizuki incident."

"Falsifying a mission report is punishable by death." Danzo stated.

"But the Mizuki incident technically wasn't even a real mission. He was still an academy student at the time so he wasn't bound by any laws relevant to debriefing." Shikaku stated matter-of-factly.

Danzo grumbled quietly.

"Very well! I appreciate you all coming. Meeting adjourned." Hiruzen announced. Everyone left for home with Danzo glaring at the smirking Uzumakis.

"Come on Momma, Let's go grab some ramen!" Naruto grabbed Haku's hand and dashed out the door.

"Coming, sweetie!" She bowed to the chuckling old man and ran after her son.

(Next day)

Naruto was taking a pleasant walk around the village. His mom had ushered him out of the house so she could prepare a special training regimen for him while Haku was with the Hokage for her evaluation. He eventually met up with a depressed-looking Sakura. "What's up with you?" He asked.

She growled in response.

Naruto grumbled but his eyes widened happily as he sensed the presence of multiple chakra signatures behind him and was happy to see that he was being shadowed by a suspicious looking, square 'rock' that moved on its own. Whispering few choice instructions to Mugen and Jin, he let the small animals ambush the 'rock' in question. After being surprised by a sudden pounce of the fierce Firestorm Duo, The infamous Konohamaru corps made their appearance… namely they crawled out from underneath the box.

Their loud demands about playing ninja made Sakura wonder exactly how, and why would a ninja go about 'playing ninja'. She was in a bad mood anyway, Sasuke had turned down yet another offer for a date and what was worse, he stated said that he considered Naruto to be a more capable ninja than her (though he looked like he sucked juice from a lemon). She didn't even realize that she was staring at Naruto while thinking _"I'm below… him?"_ the whole time.

This caused Konohamaru, who was at the time whispering his apologies to Naruto, draw several wrong conclusions. Rapping Naruto on his metal hand, he 'whispered' "Not bad, bro… she's your… this?" and whipped out a pinky.

"NO! Wait. Let me rephrase that, HELL NO!" Naruto loudly denied.

This caused Konohamaru to again 'whisper' "Heh, I knew you could do better than some flat-chested girl with a giant forehead. Say, where's that hot Hyuga girl that turns all red when you talk to her?"

Slowly, as if moving away from a snake that was ready to strike, Naruto began backing away from a very scary looking Sakura… and then bolted along with the whole Konohamaru corps. Naruto knew by instinct that no excuse would save him from a severe beating, even if he was innocent and if he could easily overpower her. Sakura would only say something along the lines that he'd influenced the brats or whatever. And they ran, until Konohamaru bumped into someone, a boy wearing makeup and a Sand Villiage forehead protector, who quickly grabbed the startled kid by his long scarf and pulled him into air.

Naruto, upon seeing the struggling Konohamaru quickly grew his glaive and charged, yelling "Hey, ya fatass! Let go of him." Mugen and Jin hung back to get in front of Sakura and the two kids.

"This isn't a good idea, Kankuro." The female Sand-nin behind him groaned and rubbed her forehead.

"Keh!" Kankuro chuckled and twitched his finger.

Naruto suddenly tripped on an invisible string and used the momentum to roll and leap onto the foreign nin to wrench his friend away.

"Move, and he dies!" He held his glaive at Kankuro's throat and kept his eyes locked on the female Sand kunoichi who tried to grab her giant fan. "Release the kid!" He ordered. Kankuro released Konohamaru, who ran next to his friends.

"Temari, a little help here?" He hissed. She frowned and rolled her eyes.

"I told you not to cause a commotion, you idiot." She lectured.

"Enough!" A gravely voice sounded from the tree branch above them. Naruto felt something wrap around his waist and throw him off of the black-garbed boy. He flipped himself upright and glared at his attacker. A red-haired boy around his age with a red kanji for love on his forehead above his left eye, which was covered by black skin like he hadn't slept a day in his life, and a large gourd on his back. The gourd had a tendril of sand being fed into it.

_"He uses sand as a weapon? Interesting. I wonder how much is kept inside of that thing."_ Naruto wondered in his head.

"What are you Sand Village shinobi doing here?" A familiar voice asked. Naruto sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Get off the branch, Sasuke. You got here too late to try and boost your ego." Naruto said loudly.

"Stop it, Naruto! You're just jealous that he's cooler than you." Sakura yelled.

"You do realize that...nevermind, she's a fangirl and it's in their nature to be completely biased." He grumbled loud enough for the Sand shinobi to hear. Temari snickered quietly.

"G-Gaara, it wasn't my fault! They started it!" Kankuro whimpered.

"Shut up! Or i'll kill you." Gaara growled. Kankuro and Temari took several steps back as Gaara unleashed a fair amount of killing intent.

Naruto's eyes widened as he felt the intent. _"This feeling...so foul...like mine..."_

"You, with the metal arm and the animals! What is your name?" The red-head asked.

Naruto recollected himself and narrowed his eyes as he turned back to the Sand shinobi. "My name is Naru-HEY!"

Sasuke jumped in front of him. "He is unimportant, just the village deadlast. I am Sasuke Uchiha!"

He was silenced by Gaara's killing intent. "I wasn't talking to you, weakling."

Naruto grabbed Sasuke's shirt and threw him over his shoulder and he landed near Sakura. "As I was saying, my name is Naruto Uzumaki. I look forward to seeing you again, my brethren." Naruto said with a dramatic bow.

"What..uh!" Gaara halted his question when he felt the chakra that was radiating off of Naruto, as well as his eyes that had turned red with an animalistic slit as a pupil. It was that of a caged demon, a monster that was being contained within a human host. "I see! I too await our next meeting." Gaara muttered before politely nodding his head to Naruto and vanishing via sand shunshin. His teammates vanished in a similar manner, but he noticed the kunoichi give him a look over before she left.

_"Holy Hell! I'm gettin' checked out by a foreign lady! Sweet!" _Naruto giddily thought. He led the children away from the alley and himself out of the fuming Uchiha's glare.

"I'll play with you guys for a little while, then I gotta go see my mom for some special training." He explaned to the grumbling in disappointment children.

(Meanwhile, at the Namikaze clan estate)

Kushina sat at the center of an underground dojo in a meditative position with her personal sword laid out in front of her. It was a black-bladed katana with a ruby-red diamond-patterned hilt. Beneath the cloth, engraved on the wood of the hilt, were several seals. The kind that her beloved Minato used for his Flying Thunder God Jutsu. The handguard was golden and shaped like a tri-pronged kunai.

It was her most prized posession.

She had changed her attire to her newly designated ANBU armor, minus the breastplate armor and mask and her shirt was scarlet red.

Scattered around her were various scrolls pertaining to her late husband's various jutsu and some of her clans kenjutsu skills. She was meditating so she could clear her mind and decide what her Naruto should learn first.

_"Maybe I should go with Kenjutsu first, he's not really bright enough for Fuinjutsu just yet, plus that retarded pervert, Jiraiya isn't here yet. I suppose I can teach him the Gale Blade that I used to kill that dick at the council meeting, he'll be happy to learn something like that."_ She thought with a smile.

She was pulled from her meditation by a knock on the front door. She sighed and got up to meet her guest after tying her blade around her waist. After several more knocks she finally reached the door and opened it to meet the eyes of Hiashi Hyuga. Beside him was a VERY red-faced Hinata.

"Hiashi-kun, Hinata-chan! Please come in." She let them into the living room and they both sat on the couch.

"Hello, Kushina. I am happy to say that this is both a social visit and a business meeting regarding a pact you and my late wife made before the birth of your son." He stated semi-seriously. Hinata "eeped" and tried to shrink into her jacket.

Kushina looked confused for a moment until her face lit up when the memory came back to her. "The marriage contract! I remember now." The joy suddenly drained from her eyes. "But what about your clan council? Won't they put up a fight to put her with some snobby nobleman?" She questioned.

He sighed and nodded sadly. "They will try...but I swore to my late wife that our daughter would be happy. And she will be...with your son as her betrothed. All I need is for you to have him sign these documents for a legal confirmation." He held out a small stack of official-looking papers.

She skimmed over them for a few moments before lowering them to look at Hinata.

"Sweetheart, How do you feel about this?" She asked gently.

Hinata played with her fingers for a minute before answering in her usual stuttering, quiet voice. Only, this time, it was more so. "I...I would l-love nothing m-m-more than to m-m-m-marry Naruto-kun. I o-only want f-for him t-t-to feel the s-s-same way."

"Even though he's been placed under the CRA?"

"W-what's that?" Hinata asked.

Kushina glowered before answering. "It stands for "Clan Restoration Act" and it means that my boy can have multiple wives or one wife and multiple mistresses." She said with obvious disgust.

Hinata's eyes widened and she immediately regretted asking. _"Naruto-kun's...going to have other women in his life?"_ She thought miserably. She felt like her heart had just been ripped from her chest and crammed through a paper shredder.

"Of course, if he were to do the latter he'd have to have your approval of the other women before he could make their status official. They would also need my approval for it because I am his mother and what mother would just let her son get hounded by a bunch of fangirls?" Kushina growled at the thought of fangirls.

"Why would N-Naruto-kun b-be sought o-out by f-f-fangirls?" Hinata asked nervously.

"Not only is he able to wield the power of an old and incredibly deadly virus, he is also the last son of the Uzumaki clan as well as my late husband, Minato Namikaze. And he is a jinchuriki, do you know what that is?" Hinata shook her head no. "It means 'Power of Human Sacrifice' meaning that he is a container for one of the nine bijuu, or the nine tailed demons." Kushina studied Hinata's reaction carefully for any sign of hostility or hatred that usually happened for most jinchuriki. She only saw fear and...guilt? Why sould she be feeling guilty.

"You do realize that you've just broken a SS-class law that was set down by the Third Hokage over a dozen years ago, right?" Hiashi rhetorically asked.

"As his mother I have the right to decide who needs to know about his burden. I'm actually going to talk to the Old Man and get a few laws rescinded." She replied.

"I-I don't c-care about what he c-carries inside of him. H-he's j-just Naruto-kun to me." Hinata stated much to Kushina's relief.

"You don't have a clue how happy it makes me to hear you say that." She emphasized her statement by reaching her arms out and hugging the young girl. "But why do you have that guilty expression on your face?"

Hinata frowned, "I never knew about the burden that he carried until just now. But I knew that he was suffering...from loneliness and the treatment of the village and I did nothing to help him through those times." She explained without stuttering, albeit very softly. Tears also began welling up in her eyes.

Kushina smiled and embraced the weeping young girl. "What's done is done. Now you can get even closer to him, as a friend...then as a lover. And when the time is right, you'll tell him how you really feel and he'll tell you the same. Then you'll get married and give me lots of little grandbabies to spoil." She gushed. Hinata turned scarlet and fainted immediately, much to the amusement of the two adults.

"I will leave the documents here with you. Please speak of this with Naruto." Hiashi picked Hinata up and left the Uzumaki home.

Kushina went back down to the dojo to continue her meditation with the documents in tow.

(Back with Naruto)

"NOOO! That's cheating, Boss!" Konohamaru yelled as he was slung over Naruto's shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Moegi and Udon were behind him with joyous smiles on their faces as they were assaulted by Naruto's two animals. They had just finished their game of 'Ninja'.

_"Basically we just played hide-n-seek. Not bad for the day, all things considered."_ Naruto thought as he put Konohamaru down.

An ANBU suddenly appeared and said that it was time for the children to go home. Naruto observed Mugen and Jin's reaction to verify the ANBU's intention. They gave no sign that the ANBU was a threat so he said goodbye to them and let the ninja take them to their homes.

"It's getting late, we better get home too, guys." Naruto kneeled to let Mugen climb into his hood and Jin merely landed on his shoulder.

He lifted himself up and turned only to catch a punch that had enough force behind it to break his nose. He looked at the pale fist in his metal hand up to the fuming glare of Sasuke's sharingan. He clenched his fingers with enough force to pierce his claws through Sasuke's skin and draw a bit of blood.

Jin reacted instinctively and used his Wind Style: Great Breakthrough Jutsu to send him flying across the training field. Kakashi-sensei managed to grasp the Uchiha by the arm before he slammed into a tree. Sakura was immediately at her beloved's side. None of them noticed the blood on Naruto's fingertips be absorbed into the claws like water in a sponge.

"We're just going to say that he was just testing your reaction time, for now. I don't want your mother to kill him and then i'll have to find a replacement for him for when you three enter the Chunin exams." Kakashi said to Naruto before pulling out three stacks of documents.

He threw one stack of papers to Naruto and handed the other two to Sakura and Sasuke.

Naruto skimmed through them and promptly signed the dotted line. Mugen jumped off his shoulder and placed his paw in a patch of dirt and jumped back on Naruto's shoulder before placing his pawprint next to his master's signature. Jin used his talons to poke four holes on the opposite side of Mugen's 'signature'.

"I guess they're in too." Naruto chuckled as he handed the papers back to Kakashi. Sasuke did the same thing and Sakura followed his lead, albeit reluctantly.

"The exam is in three weeks time. We will be undergoing some serious training in the meantime, Sakura and Sasuke! You're staying with me. Naruto, you head on home, your mother wants to train you herself." He said with his eye-smile.

Naruto grinned and sprinted home to train with his mother.

Kakashi's smile vanished the instant Naruto was out of sight and turned to glare at his two other students. "Sasuke, Do you have any idea what you almost did!" He growled. Sasuke scoffed and looked away but his shirt was grabbed by Kakashi, immediately drawing his gaze back to his teacher. "You nearly signed your death warrant! Lady Kushina may not normally be a patient woman but when her son is threatened she will become worse than a lioness protecting her cub. Not only her, but the shinobi council will hold you accountable for assaulting the last heir of the Namikaze clan." He said harshly.

Sakura started, "What do you mean 'Namikaze clan'? That was the Fourth Hokage's name." She said with wide eyes.

"Naruto is the one and only son of Lady Kushina Uzumaki Namikaze; World renowned fifth level blade master and sole survivor of the Hidden Whirlpool village, and Minato Namikaze; The greatest seal master this world has ever seen and the late fourth Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves." He dramatically explained.

"That's not possible! How could the loser be related to the fourth?" Sasuke incredulously exclaimed.

"It is possible and it's the reality. Now get a grip and let's start training!" Kakashi growled and dropped his arrogant student.

(With Naruto)

Naruto smacked into the sliding glass door that lead into the kitchen area of his house and fell on his back. _"It's too damn clean!"_ He mentally muttered. He groaned as he sat up to open the door while holding his aching nose with his cold metal hand. He made his way down to the underground dojo where he figured his mother would be.

"Did you run into the sliding glass door again?" She asked when she saw him holding his nose.

"It's too clean, I'm complaining to the cleaning lady." He grumbled. He then noticed all of the various scrolls surrounding his mom. "What's with the scrolls?" He asked.

"I'm contemplating what to teach you until the chunin exam. Once you reach the final part, your heritage won't exactly be a secret to the village and whoever the hell else will be watching." She said and sat up with a yellow envelope in her hand and a scroll in the other. "I have something to tell you and you may react with shock, disgust, or you might pass out with a red face, and then i'll be on the floor with you holding my sides cause i'll be laughing so hard." She said with a chuckle.

He raised an eyebrow in confusion.

She sobered up before holding the envelope out to her confused son. He pulled out some papers and began reading. She couldn't see his reaction but it was pretty clear when he fell backwards in a dead faint with the marriage documents fluttering around him. She kept true to her word by rolling around on the ground and holding her aching sides due to her laughter. _"These next three weeks are gonna be fun!"_ She happily thought.

(Three weeks later)

Naruto grumbled as his teammates finally arrived at their destination. "Let's go!" He grumbled. Sasuke reluctantly followed and Sakura followed Sasuke like an obediant puppy. They couldn't help but notice that Naruto's shoulder and the infected part of his neck had become pure silver. The only part that had yet to change was his shoulderblade and chest.

"Did your arm evolve again?" Sakura asked curiously.

"Unfortunately." Naruto grunted. They were both curious, especially Sasuke, but neither pressed the issue.

"U-um...Naruto?" Sakura started.

"What?" He responded.

"My mom told me a law has been rescinded and you're in the center of it. Could you tell me what the law was?" She asked.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at Naruto, also curious.

Naruto sighed. "The law regards what happened on the night I was born. The night of October the tenth, when the Nine-tailed Fox attacked the village. I'll tell you more about it after the exam." He walked into the building.

They walked up two flights of stairs in the Leaf Ninja Academy, the location where the chunin exams would be taking place. Naruto lead them with Jin on his shoulder and Mugen padding beside him.

Naruto stopped dead when they reached the second floor. In front of him was a large group of genin standing before a door where two other genin were standing guard. The sign above the door said '301' but it was only on the second floor. _"Genjutsu! Momma's lessons for detecting the damn things really did pay off."_ He thought before continuing up the stairs. He didn't fail to notice that his footsteps were the only sounds that he heard. _"Motherfuck! He wouldn't!"_

"We know that this is the second floor, a pathetic illusion like this could never slip past the eyes of an Uchiha, so take down the genjutsu!" Sasuke arrogantly ordered.

"That's it!" Naruto exclaimed before growing a small staff with a large ball on the end. He turned around and promptly smashed the ball end on his teammate's skull. "That was a test to weed out the weaker applicants. Those who realize that it was a genjutsu were supposed to just keep moving on to the real examination room but God forbid you have to let everyone know who you are, you Dumbshit." He said loudly enough for everyone to hear. Sasuke grumbled as he rubbed his head. Naruto fixed his glare on Sakura, "You shut up!" He growled out before she could even say anything.

"That's a shame! You spoiled our fun." One of the genin said before both sprinted to team 7. Naruto narrowed his eyes and moved to intercept them. Sasuke meant to kick one who was about to do the same while Naruto pulled his metal fist back.

One genin's and Sasuke's leg were grabbed by a green blur and Naruto found a staff pressed onto his chest and the other genin was wrapped in a chain.

"Lee, Tenten! I thought we agreed to keep our ability displays down to a minimum." A familiar voice chastized.

Naruto snarled quietly once he heard that voice. He fixed his glare on the pale eyes of Neji Hyuga.

"I am sorry Neji-san, but we are nearly late for the exam and any further delay would have been very unyouthful on our parts." The green garbed person said. He was unaware of the terrified look Naruto was giving him.

_"OH MY FREAKIN' LORD!"_ Naruto thought as he stared at the newcomer's face. He looked as though he was a year older than himself and he wore the same attire as Guy-sensei, sans the jonin vest and he had the same haircut and eyebrows, the only difference was that the guy had bandages wrapped around his hand and forearms and his eyes were HUGE.

"I'm Tenten!" A young woman said. Naruto fixed his gaze on the girl before him. She looked like she was the same age as Neji and that Lee guy. She wore a pink chinese shirt and normal shinobi pants. Her eyes were a chocolate brown, as was her hair, which was braided into two buns.

"Oh, Thank the Lord! There's at least one normal person on that team." Naruto grumbled. He didn't realize that Tenten heard him.

"You get used to them." She said. "I hear that you're the prodigal son, this true?" She asked.

Naruto glanced at their audience before discreetly nodding to her question.

Tenten would have asked more but Neji ordered them to leave. She grunted in aggravation but said one last thing to Naruto.

"I can't wait to see you in action, Big boy!" She flirtatiously said before turning to walk away. He couldn't help but stare at her butt, which he noticed had a little more bounce to it than he would have figured.

_"I'm getting hit on left and right."_ He chuckled lightly before walking up the stairs. Sasuke and Sakura followed him reluctantly. None of them realized that the green-garbed genin had followed them.

(Later, with the Jonin)

"How do you think the kiddies are holding up?" Asuma asked Kurenai.

"I don't wanna think about it. Kiba's probably mouthin' off and Hinata and Shino're trying to keep him quiet." She calmly said.

"If I could guess, I'd say that Ino's probably found Sasuke and she's all but making out with him." He paused to take a drag out of his cigarrette. "Shikamaru's complaining and Choji's eating his chips. That's not a prediction, that's a fact." He said with a sigh of smoke.

"I'm willing to bet that your students are better behaved than mine were." Gai grumbled as he entered the room.

"What happened, Guy?" Kurenai asked.

"Lee had a little run-in with Team 7..."

_(Flashback)_

_"Hold up!" Naruto said to his teammates. They were about to enter the hallway that would lead them to the examination room._

_"What are we stopping for?" Sakura asked._

_"Mugen could smell you five minutes ago! Come on down." He loudly said. Sasuke and Sakura were confused until they heard a thud from behind them. They turned to see the Mini-Guy behind them with an eager gleam in his eyes._

_"So you're Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha?" Lee asked._

_"Huh...So you knew who we were the whole time." Sasuke stated._

_"What's it to you?" Naruto asked._

_"My name is Rock Lee! Among sticklers, ettiquettes requires one to introduce himself before asking the name of another...I'm here to call you two out!" Lee emphasized his intent by dorpping into his fighting stance, which consisted of him straightening his legs and placing his left arm behind his back with his right held out towards them. "...I want to test out the effectiveness of my techniques...against the last surviving member of the Uchiha clan as well as the son of our villages late greatest Hokage, Lord Minato Namikaze!"_

_Naruto's eyes twitched at the mention of his father. It wasn't in anger of his father. On the contrary, he loved his father. He just felt like he was getting special attention only for his heritage, making him no different from Sasuke. And the thought of something making him similar to his rival made him nauseous._

_"Besides..." Lee began, his cheeks turning a light pink while his eyes fixated behind them. Naruto and Sasuke raised an individual brow and turned to see that Lee's gaze was directed at..._

_"Oh, this is priceless!" Naruto lowly chuckled._

_"Are you kidding me!" Sasuke grumbled._

_Sakura realized that Lee's glare was fixated on her and she immediately looked mortified._

_Lee suddenly winked at her._

_"NO WAY! THOSE EYES FREAK ME OUT!"_

_"Heheheheh..." Naruto could only chuckle at his teammate's misfortune._

_"..." Sasuke only gawked._

_"Not to mention the freaky hairdo, plus the caterpillar unibrow!" Sakura continued ranting._

_"You're an angel!" Lee said and blew her a kiss, a small pink heart fluttered from his hand and flew towards Sakura._

_"AIEE!" Sakura screamed and bent over backwards so fast that her head dented the ground. The pink heart flew over her and harmlessly popped against the wall._

_"The hell was that?" Naruto wondered aloud as he examined the wall where the heart popped._

_"So you're challenging me, even knowing my lineage? In other words, you're a fool. So, Dog-brow...Do you really want to learn what in means to be an Uchiha?" Sasuke arrogantly asked._

_"Absolutely!" Lee confirmed._

_"Hold it." Naruto said. He had Jin take Mugen behind a pillar and the animals obediently did so. "Let me take Bushy-brow on first. I have some steam to blow off, anyway." He sighed in irritation._

_"I apologize, Lord Namikaze! But I must insist that I fight the Uchiha and then you, afterwards." Lee objected._

_"Don't call me Lord Namikaze! I don't respond to anything but Naruto." Naruto growled. "And it's also the story of my freakin' life! 'Sasuke this!' and 'Sasuke that!' he's been pampered and spoiled rotten by the civillian council since the massacre. Then i'm suddenly the son of Minato Namikaze and it's like I'm suddenly royalty and all the shit I've been put through never happened, makes me wanna puke!" Naruto shouted as he rushed to Lee with his arm raised above his head. With great strength, he brought his clenched metal fist down and something unexpected happened..._

_It was caught by Lee. The force behind the blow was powerful enough to make Lee buckle under its force and the floor beneath him gave out and made a three-ft. in-diameter crater._

_"What strength!" Sasuke thought._

_"How did he do that?" Sakura muttered lowly._

_"Errg' You are indeed powerful! I can't imagine how much of an opponent you'll be. I think I will fight you first." Lee said. He used Naruto's arm as leverage and smashed his heel into his nose._

_Naruto was briefly stunned by the blow but countered by grabbing Lee's arm and jabbing his metal fist onto his face, chest, and gut before grabbing his hair and flinging him to the wall. Lee recovered and springboarded off of the wall the instant he touched it._

_Lee suddenly stretched his leg out and spun once. "Leaf Hurricane!" He shouted and performed a roundhouse kick. Naruto narrowed his eyes and used his right arm to block the attack. It didn't inflict any damage, but it still sent Naruto flying into a wall._

_Lee landed and turned to Naruto. "I suppose you've all realized by now that my moves are not ninjutsu or genjutsu. It's only pure taijutsu!" He shouted and sprinted to Naruto, who had pulled himself out of the wall. Lee threw his fist out the same time that Naruto did and their fists collided._

_Sasuke and Sakura could swear that they were hit by a small shockwave created by their clash of strength._

_Naruto and Lee suddenly leapt away from eachother to get some distance. Naruto looked relatively unharmed while Lee grabbed his arm, which seemed to be bent slightly at the elbow._

_Naruto grunted and rolled his right shoulder, "You're not kidding about your taijutsu skills. Momma told me about your sensei. Despite his looks and mannerisms, he is said to be a physical arts master. Your skills obviously prove to that little boast. I'd love nothing more than to battle it out till one of us has to throw in the towel or passes out but we both have to get to the examination room. Let's finish this with one last move." He said._

_Lee grunted and popped his arm back into place. "I heard an interesting thing from Guy-sensei...about your inner demon." He began. Sasuke and Sakura looked confusingly at Naruto._

_"Is this what the law was about?" They thought._

_Naruto adopted a hanged-off look and subconciosly rubbed his stomach where the seal was. "What of it?" Naruto growled._

_"I mean no offense! Especially to someone like you." Lee said with a polite bow._

_"Someone like ME?" Naruto growled._

_"Dammit!" Lee cursed himself and slapped his forehead. "I didn't mean like that! I meant someone that is like me!" He frantically shouted._

_"What do you mean?" Naruto asked._

_"I heard that you were the one who graduated at the bottom of the barrel for your final year in the academy. I was the same way as I was born with disrupted chakra coils and the condition made me unable to use ninjutsu or genjutsu. I was mocked for my disability and I was able to barely graduate with my mediocre taijutsu skills." He paused to take a breath. "I was placed on team 9 with Tenten and the Rookie-of-the-year, Neji Hyuga, under Guy-sensei's tutelage and I dedicated every bit of my training to the physical arts. My desire was to beat Neji, who constantly claimed that I would never get any stronger because his precious fate has declared otherwise. You, of all people, can understand what it's like to be constantly berated for your inabilities." He shouted passionately._

_Naruto's head was bowed, his hair shadowing his eyes. "I do understand what it's like. The Nine-tails' chakra was constantly mixing with my own and I didn't even realize it. It makes my stamina possibly greater than an ANBU's, but my control over it is in hell and burning. It's virtually impossible for me to use D to E rank jutsus without the jutsu overloading."_

_Lee was about to say more but he glanced at the clock on the wall and fixed Naruto with a stern glare. "I wish we could talk more, as you seem to be someone that I would be honored to have as a friend, but we are short of time and we must finish thes battle now." He grunted and began unwrapping his bandages around his forearms._

_"Tell you what, after the exam, I'll take you out and we'll grab some ramen. My treat." Naruto said and grew his katana._

_Lee said nothing, he merely smiled and nodded his head and sprinted towards Naruto._

_He raised his arm to block the incoming punch but Lee vanished and Naruto suddenly felt the sole of Lee's sandal slam into his chin and send him into the air._

_"This move...Kagebuyo-Shadow of the Dancing Leaf! That means..." Naruto thought worriedly as the bandages were about to wrap around him. He was suddenly saved by a pinwheel stabbing into the bandage and pinning it to the wall._

_"That's enough, Lee!" Guy's voice reverberated through the room. _

_"The hell? OUCH!" Naruto yelped when gravity had reclaimed him and he plummeted to the ground, headfirst._

_"Naruto, are you okay?" Sakura asked as she helped to pull him up._

_"I'm good! Except that I know that voice." He grunted as he rubbed his neck. He reached into his pouch and grabbed a couple of Vicodin and swallowed them._

_"YOU FOOL!" The voice shouted. Everyone turned to the side of the room to see..._

_"A tortoise? But where's..." Naruto thought._

_A large burst of smoke erupted from the turtle's shell and on it was Guy-sensei._

_"That's Might Guy! World-renowned taijutsu specialist." Naruto introduced to his teammates, who were in shock at the sight of the older man's eyebrows._

_"You know that move is strictly forbidden, Lee!" Guy screamed._

_"P-please forgive me...I was only..." Lee begged._

_"IDIOT!" Guy yelled and slugged Lee's cheek._

_Lee regained himself and then ran up to hug his sensei, who hugged him back._

_The scene afterwards was too disturbing to put in words._

_(Flashback end)_

"...So I bid them goodbye and they left for the examination room." Guy finished tearfully.

Asuma and Kurenai looked at their fellow jonin weirdly.

"And you're getting angry at your student for using that technique when you let him challenge Naruto in the first place? Hypocrite." Asuma said while shaking his head in disapproval.

"There are times that I question your sanity, Guy." Kurenai said

"I had good reason, I swear." Guy exclaimed. "I was curious about young Naruto's growth since that last time we all saw him in Lord Hokage's office. He's grown much more powerful since then." He seriously stated.

"How much are we talking here?" Asuma asked.

"Enough to easily pass the chunin exam if he puts in a little effort."

The room was filled with silence as the two jonin thought about Guy's words.

(Examination room hallway)

Naruto lead his teammates to the door of the examination room only to see Kakashi-sensei leaning on it while reading his book.

"I'm telling Momma that you were reading that smut in front of me." Naruto said half-jokingly. Kakashi couldn't put it away fast enough.

"Well, anyway! Now that you're all here, I can happily let you three into the chunin examination room." He stated. The genin raised their eyebrows in confusion. "Good luck to you all!" He said before disappearing via shunshin.

"Screw 'im, let's go!" Naruto said, uninterested in his sensei's aloof behavior. He opened the door and they were temporarily blinded by the bright ceiling light. When their vision returned, their jaws fell.

"HOLY SHIT!" Naruto exclaimed. The room was full of domestic and foreign shinobi, dozens of them.

_"Are they all here to apply for the exam?"_ Sakura mentally wondered. She shivered at the glares they were recieving.

"SASUKEEEEEE!" A familiar voice screeched. He was suddenly tackled by a platinum-blonde and purple blur.

_"Oh, great! Like one hopeless fangirl wasn't enough!"_ Naruto mentally growled and grumbled vocally.

"Ino, you're being troublesome." Shikamaru grumbled. Choji walked up behind him, stuffing his face with potato chips. Naruto couldn't help but smirk slightly at the sight of Choji with the giant naginata on his back.

"Hi, guys!" Naruto sighed. They nodded in return.

"Get off of Sasuke, Ino-pig!" Sakura screeched and practically threw her off of him. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your pairing preferences, She landed in Naruto's arms.

He raised an eyebrow but said nothing out of fear of a fist in his face (A.N: Say the underlined three times, really fast).

"Greetings, all!" Was heard behind him. He turned around to see team 8. He nodded to them and Shino nodded back, Hinata locked eyes with him and they both looked at the ground with a blush, while Kiba noticed this and growled in jealousy. Mugen leapt up into Hinata's arms and licked her cheeks, earning him a giggle and his ears scratched.

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME!" Ino suddenly screamed and savagely threw her fist to Naruto's face. He caught it with his left hand and locked her arm behind her back.

"Just as I thought! Every bit as weak as Sakura." He whispered in her ear, sending a tingle down her spine.

Ino grunted in frustration as he shoved her back to her teammates.

"You lot may want to quiet down, you're not getting the best of attention right now." An older leaf genin with silver hair and glasses said as he approached the group.

"Who the hell are you?" Sasuke cooly asked. Ino and Sakura swooned and Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Pardon my rudeness, I'm Kabuto Yakushi, a veteran of this exam." Kabuto introduced himself.

"Really? What can you tell us about this exam?" Naruto asked.

"Not much, i'm afraid. There's a new proctor this year and everythings different. I can tell you a bit about the various genin participating in the exam, if you're interested." He offered.

"Gaara of the Desert and Naruto Uzumaki." Sasuke demanded.

"I'm right here, Jackass." Naruto chuckled. Ino and Sakura were about to defend their hero, but Mugen growled from Hinata's arms with smoke rising from his maw, Jin's eyes focused on them and he screeched as his wings ruffled. They shut their mouths before a sound could be made.

"Naruto Uzumaki? Simple enough." Kabuto said as he pulled out a card from his kunai pouch. He channeled a bit of chakra into it and began reading.

_Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze._

_Age: twelve, almost thirteen. _("Happy early birthday." He said.)

_Teammates: Jonin instructor Kakashi Hatake, Genin teammates-Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno._

_Family: Minato Namikaze(Father, deceased) Kushina Uzumaki Namikaze(Mother)_

_Classification: Hidden Leaf Genin, Nine tails' Jinchuriki._

_Jutsu specialty: Shadow Clone Jutsu._

_Natural talents: Displays high cunning and improvisation skills, as well as instinctive use of various types of weapons._

_Other noted info: No genjutsu skills, above-average taijutsu, displays talent in Kenjutsu, undetermined Ninjutsu skills. Large chakra reserves due to resonation with inner demon. Wielder of the uncontrollable Technocyte virus. Metallic virus enables manifestation of virtually any metallic shape from the palm of his hand, several abilities also demonstrated while others have yet to be revealed._

"Very fascinating." Kabuto commented. _"I must tell my lord about this."_ "Could you demonstrate this virus' ability?"

"No!" Naruto blandly said. His gaze was currently locked behind Kabuto, who turned to see every eye in the room on the blonde. "Thanks for pointing the unwanted attention at me, Asshole."

"Sorry, my mistake." He nervously stated.

"Whatever, i'll kick their asses later. Next, please?"

"Yes!" Kabuto pulled out another card and began reading.

_Gaara of the Desert_

_Age: thirteen_

_Teammates: Jonin Instructor Baki, Teammates/siblings Kankuro and Temari_

_Classification: Sand Village Genin_

_Jutsu specialty: Sand-based ninjutsu_

_Other noted info: Returned from every single mission, A-B rank included, without a single scratch._

"Whoa! I had to hunt down the daimyo's wife's damn cat once and I came out with scratches. And it was a D-rank. What the hell's this guy's secret?" Naruto praised. He was stopped from further conversation by a loud bang.

"Alright, you maggot-fucking shitstains. The first phase of the Chunin-selection examination has now begun." A tall, dark-garbed man shouted.

(One hour later! With the jonin)

"Who's conducting the examination this year?" Asuma asked Gai.

"It's Ibiki Morino." Kakashi said as he walked through the door.

"That sadist!" Gai blurted.

"Ibiki Morino?" Kurenai confusingly asked.

"That's right! I heard that you became a jonin just this year." They all turned to the window to see Kushina Uzumaki on the couch below it. She was garbed in her modified ANBU outfit and her katana was sheathed at her left hip. "Ibiki's an old drinking buddy of mine and Minato's. He's a sadist in charge of the ANBU's torture and interrogation dept. He's a master of mental, emotional, and psychological warfare and is able to acquire information without laying a finger on his victims. I can't even imagine what he's putting the genin through."

"You don't need to worry, Kushina. There were seventy-six teams who passed. Your son's team being one of them." Ibiki announced as he entered the room. Kushina smiled and hugged her old friend.

"Did he give you any trouble?" She smirked, knowing the answer.

"Of course! Did you expect anything less from your kid!" He exclaimed and pulled out a test paper. "This is his test, take a look." He handed it to her. She took one look at it and began cracking up. The other occupants of the room glanced at it to see that it was completely blank.

"The funny thing is that now he's in the hands of Anko Mitarashi." Ibiki said.

Everyone quieted and their eyes widened in shock. Kushina looked confused, though.

"What's wrong with Anko? She seemed like a good kid, the last time I saw her." Kushina questioned.

"She's alright, don't get me wrong, but she's a little on the crazy side." Kakashi said.

Kushina merely raised a brow.

(With Naruto)

_"What the hell is this lady's problem?"_ Naruto thought as he listened to Anko's explaination of the second phase of the Chunin exam. When she burst through the window of the test room, she jumped onto his desk and practically tried seducing him. Hinata's murderous glare had scared her off but it didn't free him completely.

They would be spending five days within training area 44 a.k.a. the forest of death. Each team would be given a Heaven or Earth scroll and if they managed to gather a set, they were to head to the tower in the center of the forest.

And they were to acquire a scroll from another team by any means necessary.

_"Screw that! I just wanna get in the forest, already."_ He excitedly whined. Mugen was whining pleadingly and wagging his tail while Jin was screeching eagerly and leaping from one of Naruto's shoulders to the other.

Anko looked at the animals with irritation and threw a kunai at Jin but Naruto sidestepped, earning a nick on his cheek. He raised his hand to grab the blade of the kunai that she held in front of his neck.

"You know, it's cute and eager genin like you that are the first to die in this exam." She seductively whispered in his ear before licking his neck hungrily.

She was stopped by a snapping sound and she looked at her kunai to see that Naruto had crushed it into little pieces in the palm of his hand.

"I think I can handle myself." He smirked and dropped the shards of metal.

Anko suddenly whirled around as a grass genin appeared behind her with her freakishly long tongue hanging out of her mouth and wrapped around Anko's kunai.

"I beg your pardon. I was merely returning your kunai." The grass genin's voice was raspy and sounded serpentine.

Anko cheerfully smiled. "Why thank you, grass ninja."

_"Oh yeah, give more sharp pointy things to the crazy lady with a blood fetish."_ Naruto sarcastically thought as he rubbed his cheek.

After the excitement died down, Anko handed everyone a sheet of paper that released her and the village from responsibility of them if they died in the forest.

Naruto signed his form and handed it in. He proceeded to go into the tent that carried the scrolls and he recieved a heaven scroll. The chunin told him to wait at gate seven and they would open in half an hour.

Naruto opted to walk around to check out the competition, so to speak.

"N-Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked from behind him. Naruto turned to her and shyly scratched the back of his head.

"H-hi Hinata-chan! W-what's up?" He asked akwardly.

Hinata audibly gulped before answering. "I s-saw that c-cut on your cheek by that h-harlot."

Naruto raised a brow at her choice of her language.

"Don't worry about it. Nothing the fuzzbucket can't take care of." He pointed to the cut so she could see that it was glowing red and steaming as it shrunk.

"Th-the fox?" She questioned. She stepped slightly closer to him and he turned slightly pink under her curious gaze.

"Yeah, the bastard's good for something." He chuckled until he felt her soft hand placed onto his stomach, right on the seal. "H-Hinata-chan?" He questioned with rosy cheeks.

She turned red as she felt his muscles beneath the sweatshirt. "C-can I s-s-see the s-seal?" She asked.

Naruto looked around to make sure that nobody was in sight before lifting his shirt slightly and channeling his chakra. Hinata gasped at the spiral pattern tattoo that faded into her view.

"I'm not a-an expert b-but I can tell that i-it's very powerful." She stuttered as she softly ran her fingers over the mark and his muscular abs.

Naruto had to bite back a moan when she moved her hands over his skin. "I-It's almost time for the exam to start. We should get to our teams."

"I-I understand." She said but before she could remove her hand, Naruto gently grabbed it with his flesh hand and he gave a look to Jin. Jin hopped onto her head and nestled himself into her hood.

"I want you to take Jin with you. He'll make sure you stay safe. Hinata? When the exam's over, can we talk?" He asked.

She murmured a 'yes' and, much to his surprise, she stood on the tip of her toes and pecked him on the cheek. She ran towards her teammates before she could faint or he could say anything.

With a giant smile on his face, he practically skipped over to his teammates.

"Where's Jin?" Sakura asked when she realized that her teammate's beloved hawk wasn't on his person.

"He's around. Don't worry about it." He said with a smirk. The gate alarm buzzed and the gate jerked open. Not a second flew by and the three humans, plus a fox, shot into the darkness of the Forest of Death.

A.N: I know that many of you have been awaiting the next chapter and I apologize for the long wait and if this isn't up to anyone's standards. I originally wanted to get the entire Chunin exam arc into this one chapter but it took me long enough to get this bit up and I figured that it would've been unfair to the rest of you to wait that long. So here's the new chapter and I hope it was able to satisfy some of you.

Please review!


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